To classic movie fans, the first name that comes to mind when someone mentions Tarzan is, of course, Johnny Weissmuller. For many of us born in the second half of the “Baby Boom,” though, there’s a place in our collective hearts for Texas-born actor Ron Ely, who swung onto TV screens as the Ape Man in NBC’s 1966-68 action series Tarzan. Ely, who passed away last week at the age of 86, was a last-minute replacement for ’60s big-screen Tarzan Mike Henry, who had enough of the role after being bitten in the jaw by the chimp playing Cheeta during the filming of Tarzan and the Great River. The show, set in modern-day Africa, showed Ely as an educated and well-spoken jungle lord who fought for justice and freedom against poachers, warlords, and other menaces. Jane and Boy were gone, the later replaced by a young orphan (Manuel Padilla, Jr.) named Jai in Tarzan’s care.
Trying to avoid the stereotypic depictions of Africans that the feature films maintained, the series gave a lot of black actors early roles, including James Earl Jones, Yaphet Kotto, William Marshall, Nichelle Nichols, Cicely Tyson, and even Diana Ross and The Supremes (as a trio of nuns). Ely was proud of the fact he did his own stunt work, with NBC sending out a publicity photo highlighting the many breaks, scrapes, fractures, and lion bites (!) he endured. The series was a rating success, particularly with younger viewers, but network concerns over the violence and demographics led to its cancellation after only two seasons.
Prior to landing the title role of Tarzan, the 6’4″ Ely had a modest film career, debuting in 1958’s South Pacific and with roles in such frontier dramas as The Fiend Who Walked the West and The Night of the Grizzly. On the small screen he guest starred on various series and co-starred with Jeremy Slate in the 1960-61 adventure series The Aquanauts. After Tarzan’s cancellation, though, Ron found himself in the same typecast rut that plagued such stars as Batman’s Adam West and Star Trek’s William Shatner.
Ely’s second most notable role was as another early 20th-century hero, when sci-fi/fantasy producer George Pal (The War of the Worlds) tapped him to play 1930s pulp magazine crimefighter Clark “Doc” Savage in Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze. Based on the novel by Lester Dent and directed by Michael Anderson, the film followed golden-skinned adventurer Doc and his allies, “The Fabulous Five,” as they travelled to Central America and encountered contemporary pirates, lost jungle tribes, and a pool of molten gold. Originally planned as a serious adventure saga, the project veered heavily into ’60s Batman-style camp, a turn that wasn’t lost on its star. “It looked ideal when they offered it to me,” Ely said in an interview, “and the result was exactly the opposite. During the production, there was a change in studio heads; the new people didn’t know how to sell it.” The result was a box office disappointment, and a planned sequel, Doc Savage: The Arch Enemy of Evil, was never made.
In the ’70s and ’80s Ely made a handful of film appearances but was a regular presence on TV. He replaced Bert Parks as the host of the Miss America pageant for two years and hosted the short-lived 1980-81 game show Face the Music. Ron took over as Mike Nelson in a 1987 remake of the Lloyd Bridges aquatic drama Sea Hunt, and the erstwhile Man of Bronze played the Man of Steel, guest starring as an alternate universe version of Superman, in a 1991 two-parter of the syndicated series The Adventures of Superboy. He even turned up as a bad guy in an episode of the 1991-94 Tarzan series starring Wolf Larson. In between acting roles Ely turned author, writing a pair of detective novels, Night Shadows and East Beach. He retired from acting in the early 2000s, but a peaceful retirement was shattered in October of 2019 when his second wife, Valerie Lundeen, was murdered by their son Cameron, who was suffering from CTE trauma and was himself killed by police.
Reminiscing on his time as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ jungle hero, Ely once recalled, “I met with them on a Monday and when they offered me the role I thought: ‘No way do I want to step into that bear trap. You do Tarzan and you are stamped for life.’ Was I ever right!” He may have been right, but it also endeared him to a generation of fans.