Ted Hartley, an actor, two-time Tony-nominated producer and chairman and CEO of RKO Pictures, has died. He was 100.
A longtime resident of the Hamptons, Hartley died Oct. 10 in New York City, The East Hampton Star reported.
In 1991, he and his late wife, actress Dina Merrill, took control of what was left of the famed RKO when their company, Pavilion Communications, purchased 51 percent of the studio that released King Kong and Citizen Kane and once was owned by Howard Hughes.
He then produced several films, including a 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young for Disney that starred Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron and a 2002 version of The Magnificent Ambersons for A&E.
Hartley was nominated for Tony Awards in 2007 and ’08 for producing the musical comedy Curtains, which played for 511 performances on Broadway, and a revival of Gypsy that featured Patti LuPone. His other stage credits include Never Gonna Dance and Doctor Zhivago.
In perhaps his most notable acting role, he portrayed hotelier Lewis Belding, married to Verna Bloom‘s character, in Clint Eastwood‘s High Plains Drifter (1973).
“I was self-conscious as an actor, but fortunately I was given parts where self-consciousness was part of the role, and I got away with it,” he once told The Star. “I wanted to be a member at The Actors Studio, and I just didn’t quite get there. Even though Lee Strasberg said wonderful things about me occasionally, I always had that feeling that he wanted me to be a little more authentic.”
Hartley was born on Nov. 6, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised on a farm in Iowa. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served as a White House aide under President Eisenhower and piloted jet fighters.
After his military career ended when he was injured in a carrier-landing accident in 1964, he attended Harvard Business School and worked for First Western Financial Corp. before getting fired.
He turned to acting and played Rev. Bedford on ABC’s Peyton Place during the primetime soap’s second season (1965-66), then had small roles on the big screen in Walk Don’t Run (1966), the Matt Helm flick Murderers’ Row (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and Ice Station Zebra (1968).
In 1974, Hartley starred as Capt. McKeegan on ABC’s Chopper One, a drama about helicopter cops, but it was canceled after 13 episodes.
He also showed up on episodes of The F.B.I., Mannix, Ironside and Barnaby Jones and in such films as Matilda (1978), Caddyshack II (1998) and Laura Smiles (2005), which he produced as well.
He married Merrill soon after she and her second husband, actor Cliff Robertson, divorced in 1989.
The Star noted he was the longest-tenured member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington and a member of the New York Yacht Club, River Club, Chevy Chase Club and Bel-Air Country Club.
Survivors include his son, Philippe.
