NEW YORK - A Cedar Falls High School graduate who was killed in a Manhattan murder-suicide will be remembered during a July event in New York.

Daniel Benton Tedlie, 57, had made a living in theater and real estate in the Big Apple and was in the process of moving to Colorado to be closer to his mother and sister when he was gunned down while having dinner with a former girlfriend at her apartment in February.

The slaying was described as a double murder/suicide.

The gunman, 55-year-old Michael Ruiz, showed up at the apartment unannounced and killed Tedlie and Debra Silver.

Ruiz then turned the gun on himself.

Tedlie graduated from Cedar Falls High in 1969, attended Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls and received a degree in English literature from Coe College in Cedar Rapids.

"Dan was really talented. He could sing; he just had a big presence. He was handsome, had a good personality," said his sister, Margeret Tedlie of Niwot, Colo.

Inspired by his father, Truman Tedlie, an aerospace engineer who was active in community theater, Dan Tedlie pursued a life on the stage and moved to New York in 1977.

Dan Tedlie wrote, acted in and directed a number of theater productions in Manhattan and also ran a company called Marketing Missions.

He appeared in films "The Egoists "(2003), "Happiness and Adventures of Sebastian Cole" (both 1998) and had small appearances on the television show "30 Rock" and in soap operas.

Miraculously, Dan Tedlie survived a stabbing in 1981 in New York. He was in the path of a gang member fleeing a fight when the attacker stabbed him in the heart with an ice pick.

Mistaken for a sleeping homeless man, Dan Tedlie remained on the ground for about half an hour before he was discovered and rushed to the hospital. He was clinically dead but pulled through after a surgeon patched his heart, Margaret Tedlie said.

The family is planning a ceremony for the Independence Day Weekend in the New York City area to honor Daniel Tedlie.

"It's a celebration of Dan's life. We're hoping to have people come and share their memories with us," his sister said.

Tedlie's father died in 2000, and his mother, Joan Tedlie, later moved to Colorado. A brother, Terry Tedlie, still lives in Waterloo.

Anyone interested in attending the July event is asked to contact the family at DanTedlieMemorial@gmail.com.