Ted Hartley, 1924 – 2025

Actor turned producer Ted Hartley, 100, died on Oct. 10. A U.S. Naval Academy grad, he was a jet-fighter pilot who had to retire after a 1964 crash. He turned to acting shortly thereafter, appearing in such movies and TV shows as High Plains Drifter, Peyton Place, Walk Don’t Run, Barefoot in the Park, Ice Station Zebra, The FBI, Mannix, Chopper One (he costarred in the 1970s helicopter-cop series), Caddyshack II, and, most recently, 2012’s A Late Quartet. He and his wife (from 1989 till her death in 2017), actress Dina Merrill, bought RKO Pictures (Dina Came From Money, to put it mildly), and produced remakes of Mighty Joe Young and The Magnificent Ambersons, as well as several other movies and TV-movies. On Broadway, Hartley produced Gypsy, Evita, Big Fish, 13, Dr. Zhivago, and Curtains. His obit noted that Hartley was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the New York Yacht Club, the River Club, the Chevy Chase Club, and the Bel-Air Country Club, because when you marry Dina Merrill, that’s what happens.