Actor
Ely won the role of Tarzan in 1966 after playing various bit-parts, including an airplane navigator in the 1958 film South Pacific and a guest-starring role on Barbara Eden's first television series, the romantic comedy How to Marry a Millionaire. Ely's height (6' 4") and athletic build also won him the title role in the 1975 film Doc Savage, as well as various guest shots. In a 1978 Fantasy Island episode, for example, Ely portrayed Mark Antony in a Roman military short tunic and breastplate that displayed almost as much of his physique as his Tarzan costume had.
From 1960-61, Ely starred in the series The Aquanauts. In the 1980s, Ely hosted the musical game show Face the Music. Additionally, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 Miss America Pageants, replacing longtime host Bert Parks. He replaced Lloyd Bridges as "Mike Nelson" in the last season of Sea Hunt, from 1987-1988.
In the 1990s, Ely’s roles included a retired Superman from an alternate reality in the 1991 two-part episode "The Road to Hell" of the Superboy syndicated television series, and a big game hunter named Gordon Shaw in the 1992 episode "Tarzan the Hunted" of the syndicated Tarzán TV series (starring Wolf Larson).
Until about 2001, Ely made appearances on popular TV shows, his most recent being Sheena and Renegade. He is now retired from acting.
Read more about this topic: Ron Ely
Famous quotes containing the word actor:
“We use important words too frequently and they lose value; for instance, charm and great. An actor or musician often is proclaimed great when we really mean he is outstanding.”
—Eleanor Robson Belmont (1878–1979)
“Mr. [John] Barrymore’s smile was the smile of an actor who hates actors, and who knows that he is going to kill two or three before the play is over. I am not an actor-killer, but I like my Hamlets to dislike actors, if you know what I mean, and I think you don’t.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“The actor can be compared to the soldier. The former dazzled by his triumphs, sighs continually for the struggles of stage- life; the latter filled with the glory he has acquired on the battlefield, cannot resign himself to peace.”
—Adelaide Ristori (1822–1906)