Anthony Eisley, who shared top billing with Bob Conrad and Connie Stevens on the ABC TV series Hawaiian Eye from 1959 to 1963, only to be replaced by teen heart throb Troy Donahue, has died at the age of 78 at his home in Woodland Hills, Ca. He was featured as well in many B-Movies and television guest appearances.
Originally billed as Fred Eisley until Warner brothers re-christened him as Anthony Eisley, he had started work in television as early as 1952. He appeared regularly on The Real McCoys, Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Outer Limits, Dragnet, The F.B.I., The Wild Wild West, Mannix, Ironside, Emergency!, The Rookies, Barnaby Jones, and The Dukes of Hazzard. He appeared in many exploitation B-movies such as Wasp Woman, The Navy Vs the Night Monsters, The Witchmaker, Dracula Vs Frankenstein, Monster, and Evil Spirits. Eisley even portrayed a monster himself in the ill-fated The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackels. That movie languished unreleased for decades because it was so awful. It was truly a case of a movie escaping rather than being released. As his career waned, he found work as a stunt driver in films.
He is survived by his four children and seven grand-children.
Gone too soon...