Tarzan star Ron Ely’s tragic final years saw son kill wife in frenzied knife attack before being shot 24 times by cops

TARZAN star Ron Ely has sadly passed away at the age of 86.

The famous actor’s life was hit with some devastating events in his final years - as his second wife and their son both died in a horrific murder scene.

In October 2019, Ron’s wife, Valerie Lundeen Ely, a one-time beauty queen, was fatally stabbed at 62 by their son Cameron Ely, 30, in the family's home in the Santa Barbara, California suburb of Hope Ranch.

Cameron - who initially blamed Ron for the stabbing - was shot over 20 times by officers at the scene and his body was so decimated his tattoos were unrecognisable. 

He was later found to be unarmed.

Claiming his son was handing himself into police when he was killed, Ron sued the Santa Barbara district police for federal wrongful death a year later.

The Santa Barbara district attorney described the police's actions as justifiable homicide in 2019, explaining they were summoned to Ron’s home by Cameron, accusing his dad of stabbing Valerie.

They claimed Valerie was dead at the scene, “stabbed with multiple wounds”, and Ron said it was Cameron who’d killed her.

They said: “The suspect told deputies that he had a gun, advanced towards the deputies, and motioned with his hands as if he were drawing a weapon. 

“In response, four deputies fired a total of 24 rounds from their service weapons, fatally wounding the suspect.

“When deputies were able to safely approach Cameron using a ballistic shield, they found that he had feigned being armed and did not have a weapon.”

But in October 2020, Ron accused the police of lying about what happened, adding that Cameron had his “hands up” indicating “the universal act of surrender” as he came out the house to the sheriffs.

He also claimed police opened fire “less than 20 seconds after” he emerged.

He said first responders were negligent in their actions involving both his late wife and son, didn’t help his dying wife, and that Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department behaved in a manner that was “reprehensible,” “egregious, entirely unreasonable, and, accordingly, unconstitutional.”

Cameron’s sisters Kristen and Kaitland Ely also claimed the police demonstrated “intentional deception, ineptitude and disregard for human life” in the way they handled the crime scene.

In video footage released by the Ely family obtained by the Daily Mail, Ron was seen in a wheelchair, sobbing over his wife's dead body.

As a pair of police made their way into the home with torches, a deputy asked Ron, “Sir, what's going on?”

Then another deputy saw Valerie's body, and said, “Oh my god, Jesus - clear the house.”

In another clip from the incident, Cameron is told "keep you hands up" before being shot by officers.

Another shows him laying motionless on the floor as police handcuff him.

In October 2022, California's Central District rejected the Ely family's lawsuit, according to local news outlet KEYT.

Sheriff Bill Brown said: “Although we recognize that this was a tragic situation, and have great sympathy for the Ely family, the use of deadly force against Cameron Ely was justified and lawful under the circumstances.”

'Erratic, unstable and volatile'

While officers claim Ely’s daughters told them that Cameron had become erratic, unstable, and volatile in the days leading up to their mother’s death, Kristen and Katiland deny saying that.

However, an autopsy later found that Cameron was suffering from the early stages of chronic traumatic encephalopathy at the time of his death - a neurological disease caused by head traumas. 

He was a talented quarterback at Harvard so his sporting career may have been the cause for this.

In 2005, a profile on a college football website gushed over Cameron’s talent, writing “the sky is the limit for San Marcos high school QB Cameron Ely.”

Harvard also publicly praised his "supreme intelligence" and "ability to make good decisions" in 2007.

He graduated in 2012 with a bachelor of arts in psychology.

'Family man'

Ron was a huge star of the Tarzan TV series from 1966 to 1968, and  did all his own stunts on the show, working directly with the wild animals, including tigers and chimpanzees.

Due to this, he suffered 24 major injuries, including two broken shoulders and various lion bites.

Ron also played the title character in the 1975 action film Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, but otherwise had mostly small roles.

After divorcing his high school sweetheart in 1961, he dated actresses Ursula Andress, Barbara Bouchet, Dyan Cannon, and Britt Ekland. 

Then, in the early ‘80s, while hosting a Miss America pageant, he met Miss Florida Valerie.

They married in 1984, had their three children, and Ron retired from acting to focus on his family in 2001.

He told the Daily Express: “Late in life I had a young family. I decided to stop acting and work at home, as an author, that way I could be with the kids all through school and be able to attend their sports games and things.”

In 2012, he gushed about how much he enjoyed spending time with his family, with all three of his adult children all living at home in their Santa Barbara mansion.

“It’s great in the morning. We see each other,” Ron told website Fanboy Planet.

“We see each other in the evening, we see each other when they come and go. We’re always in touch."

Ron sadly died on September 29 this year, at his home in Los Alamos, California.

But his death was only announced by his daughter Kirstin yesterday.

She wrote: “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.”