Denny Miller, who was the first blonde Tarzan on the big screen, has died. He was 80.
Miller was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in January and died on Tuesday in Las Vegas, his agent, David Moss, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The strapping 6 feet 4 inches tall Miller, who played basketball at UCLA for legendary coach John Wooden in the 1950s, is also known for his role as Western movie actor Wyoming Bill Kelso in the delightful 1968 Peter Sellers comedy 'The Party', directed by Blake Edwards.
Miller appeared in two episodes of CBS' 'Gilligan's Island' - one as surfer Duke Williams, who washed ashore after a tsunami, and another as Tongo, an ape man who is captured and put in a cage.
Miller starred as Edgar Rice Burroughs' lord of the jungle in the low-budget 'Tarzan', the Ape Man (1959), a remake of the 1932 classic that starred Olympic gold medalist Johnny Weissmuller. Footage from that film, as well as Tarzan's yell, were recycled from the original (both were made at MGM).
Miller also worked in such films as 'Making It' (1971), written by Peter Bart, 'Buck and the Preacher' (1972) and 'The Norseman' (1978).
The actor made more of a mark on television, with stints on dozens of shows including 'Have Gun - Will Travel', 'The Rifleman', 'Ben Casey', 'The Fugitive', 'I Spy', 'The High Chaparral', 'Hawaii Five-O', 'I Dream of Jeannie', 'The Brady Bunch', 'The Six Million Dollar Man', 'Battlestar Galactica', 'Barnaby Jones', 'Charlie's Angels' among others.
