Ted Hartley

Ted Hartley was an American actor, film and stage producer, and the chief executive of RKO Pictures. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1924, he trained as a Navy fighter pilot before attending Harvard Business School and working in investment banking. He then turned to acting, playing Reverend Jerry Bedford on the 1960s show Peyton Place, and he appeared in films including Walk, Don't Run (1966), Murderers' Row (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967), Ice Station Zebra (1968) and High Plains Drifter (1973). In the mid-1970s he was cast in the short-lived ABC series Chopper One. He later helped form RKO Pictures, LLC, and as its lead producer worked on the Mighty Joe Young remake (1998) and Shade (2003). For RKO Stage he produced Broadway musicals including Curtains and Gypsy and the West End musical Top Hat, which won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical in 2013.