Ted Hartley, the Navy fighter pilot turned actor, producer, and longtime chairman and CEO of RKO Pictures, has passed away at the age of 100. A resident of the Hamptons, Hartley died on October 10 in New York City, according to The East Hampton Star.
Hartley’s career spanned film, television, Broadway, aviation, investment banking, and later, visual art. He is remembered by many as Rev. Bedford on Peyton Place and as hotelier Lewis Belding opposite Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter (1973). He was married to actress and heiress Dina Merrill from 1989 until her death in 2017, and is survived by his son, Philippe.
Born on November 6, 1924, in Omaha and raised on an Iowa farm, Hartley showed ambition early. At 14, he won a Warner Bros.–sponsored essay contest titled “Why I Would Like to Fly,” earning flying lessons. He attended Shattuck Military Academy, became a U.S. Olympic wrestling finalist at the Naval Academy, and trained as a carrier-based fighter pilot.
Hartley flew F-11 Tigers beginning in 1956 and later served as a White House aide to Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. His path changed in 1964 when he suffered a back injury during a carrier landing accident. “In 1964, in spite of all my possible self-aggrandizing dreams of doing something great and getting medals, I fell getting out of a fighter plane and broke my back on the deck,” he told The Star in 2019. “What an ignominious way to go! It’s not the way I planned it.”
After recovering, Hartley attended Harvard Business School and entered investment banking—until being fired, a twist of fate that led him to Hollywood. A chance encounter in Los Angeles sparked his acting career, including his role as Rev. Jerry Bedford on ABC’s Peyton Place during the 1965–66 season. Throughout the late ’60s and ’70s, he appeared in Walk, Don’t Run, Murderers’ Row, Barefoot in the Park, Ice Station Zebra, Matilda, and Caddyshack II, as well as the TV series Chopped One.
He returned to the screen in the 2000s with roles in Laura Smiles (2005) and A Late Quartet (2012), alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Christopher Walken. Reflecting on his acting, Hartley said, “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. 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.”
In 1991, Hartley and Merrill’s Pavilion Communications purchased a majority stake in the legendary RKO Pictures, becoming CEO and later chairman emeritus. During his tenure, he produced films including Mighty Joe Young (1998), The Magnificent Ambersons, Shade, Ritual, and The Gin Game.
Hartley was also active in theater, earning Tony nominations for Curtains (2007) and the Patti LuPone–led revival of Gypsy (2008). His stage credits included Never Gonna Dance, 13, Doctor Zhivago, and the Olivier Award–winning Top Hat.
After his wife’s passing, Hartley found a new creative outlet in visual art. Hosting sessions at their East Hampton home evolved into a personal reinvention. He developed a passion for abstract art, exhibiting multiple times at Keyes Art in Sag Harbor. “It wasn’t creating something to see if it matched up to something else,” he said. “It was, ‘What story do I want to tell?’ I think of myself as a storyteller. Suddenly, like a rose in bud, stuff began to happen, and I have never looked back.”
Artist and curator George Negroponte praised Hartley’s work, noting he had “that uncanny ability to make art that is drenched in living atmosphere, color, and light.”