US actor Ron Ely, best known for his role as Tarzan in the 1960s television series of the same name, has died at the age of 86.

“The world has lost one of the greatest men it has ever known – and I have lost my father,” the actor's daughter, Kirsten Casale Ely, said in an Instagram post.

Tarzan originally aired on NBC from 1966 to 1968. During this time, the actor broke several bones and was reportedly attacked by animals while performing his own stunts.

After retiring from acting in 2001, Ely became an author and published two crime novels.

Ely briefly returned to acting in 2014 for a television film, Expecting Amish, in which he played an Amish elder.

He appeared in other successful television shows in the 1980s, including the cruise comedy “The Love Boat” and “Wonder Woman” with Lynda Carter.

Ely was born in Texas in 1938 and married his high school sweetheart in 1959 before divorcing two years later.

He was also known for hosting the Miss America pageant in the early 1980s, where he met his second wife, Valerie Lundeen. The couple had three children.

Lundeen was stabbed to death by her son Cameron at the age of 62at their home in California in 2019. He was subsequently shot by police after attending officers deemed him a threat.

Ron Ely filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police, although the judge ruled that the officers had acted in self-defense.

The Tarzan star died on September 29 at his home in Los Alamos in Santa Barbara, California.

The actor's daughter announced the death in an Instagram post on Wednesday, saying: “My father was someone people called a hero. He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader.”

She added: “I knew him as my father – and what a heavenly honor that was. For me he was the moon.”