Background
Hartley was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised on a farm in Iowa. His father died when he was 5, causing financial hardships for the family.
Hartley was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised on a farm in Iowa. His father died when he was 5, causing financial hardships for the family.
Hartley"s military career being finished he began a career in financial services.
After flight training, he served as a carrier-based fighter pilot, later flying F-11s following their introduction in 1956. In May 1964, while he was a Navy pilot, his fighter jet crashed,after contact with his wingman. He became a Vice President for First Western Financial Corporation.
His next career was in Hollywood, as an actor, where he took on the role of Reverend Jerry Bedford on the 1960s television series Peyton Place.
He had minor roles in films with Cary Grant, Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood, and then in the late 1970s was cast in his own series, American Broadcasting Company"s Chopper One, about helicopter cops. The series failed. Hartley then moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he volunteered as the Managing Artistic Director of the local theater, and then turned to commodity trading full-time.
In 1987 he became involved with Pavilion Communications Incorporated., a company designed to acquire smaller entertainment companies. Through this, Hartley learned of an opportunity to take over Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures.
He and Merrill purchased 51% of the company and merged Pavilion Communications with Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures Corporation in 1991, forming Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, Incorporated.
Their first major project was the 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young. As chairman and chief executive office of Radio-Keith-Orpheum Pictures, Hartley has led Radio-Keith-Orpheum"s worldwide development and production activities in movies and television as well as the expansion of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum brand to stage and other entertainment and distribution venues. He produced the 1998 Radio-Keith-Orpheum classic film Mighty Joe Young with Disney (1998), Ritual with Miramax (2000), Magnificent Ambersons (2002), Shade, starring Sylvester Stallone (2003).
In 2013 he was appointed chairman of the board of Orbis International, a nonprofit eye-healthcare organization he has been involved with since 2010.
Laura Smiles Shade Ritual Mighty Joe Young Milk & Money = Stage Productions.