Weeks after his passing on Sept. 29, Ron Ely’s cause of death has been revealed.
Per a death certificate obtained by TMZ, Ely, the actor best known for playing the title role in the Tarzan TV series, died from “end-stage heart disease.” He was 86.
Ely was the storied man of the jungle in NBC’s Tarzan, which aired from for two seasons in the mid-1960s. His TV credits also included Father Knows Best; The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis; The Aquanauts; Marcus Welby, M.D.; Wonder Woman; The Love Boat; Fantasy Island and L.A. Law. He also played Mike Nelson in a syndicated revival of Sea Hunt, which lasted one season, and was the host of Face the Music game show and two Miss America pageants in the early 1980s.
“The world has lost one of the greatest men it has ever known — and I have lost my dad,” Ely’s daughter, Kirsten, said in a statement to Forbes. “My father was someone that people called a hero. He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader. He created a powerful wave of positive influence wherever he went. The impact he had on others is something that I have never witnessed in any other person — there was something truly magical about him. This is how the world knew him… I knew him as my dad — and what a heaven-sent honor that has been. To me, he hung the moon.”
In 2019, Ely and his family were in the news after Ely’s son, Cameron, fatally stabbed his mother, Valerie, and then was killed by sheriff’s deputies who responded to a 911 call.
Launch Gallery: TV Stars We Lost in 2024
