Ronald Pierce Ron Ely born June 21 1938 is an American actor and novelist born in Hereford Texas Ely is best known for having portrayed Tarzan in the 1966 NBC series Tarzan and for playing the lead role in the 1975 film Doc Savage The Man of Bronze Ely obtained the role after playing various bitparts including an airplane navigator in the 1958 film South Pacific and a gueststarring role on Barbara Edens first television series the romantic comedy How to Marry a Millionaire Elys 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 196061 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 In the 1990s Elys roles included a retired Superman in the 1991 twopart 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 In recent years Ely has embarked on a successful writing career and has penned two mystery novels featuring private eye Jake Sands Night Shadows 1994 and East Beach 1995 Until about 2001 Ely made appearances on popular TV shows his most recent being Sheena and Renegade He is now retired from acting Description above from the Wikipedia article Ron Ely licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia