Detailed Biography

Jonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor and comedian perhaps best known for playing Jack Tripper in the ABC sitcom Three's Company.

Early life

Ritter was born and raised in Burbank, California, the son of Dorothy Fay , an actress, and singing cowboy/matinee-star Tex Ritter. He attended Hollywood High School, where he was Student Body President. He went on to the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, majored in psychology and minored in architecture.

Career

Three's Company

Ritter headlined several stage performances before he was made a star by appearing in the hit sitcom Three's Company in 1977, playing a single ladies' man and culinary student, Jack Tripper, who lived with two female roommates played by Joyce Dewitt and Suzanne Somers. Jack pretended to be gay to keep the landlords appeased over their living arrangement. The show spent several seasons near the top of the TV ratings in the U.S. before ending in 1984. Ritter went on for one more year on the spin-off Three's a Crowd. The original series has been seen continuously in reruns and is also available on DVD. During the run of the show, he appeared in the feature films Hero at Large, Americathon, and They All Laughed. In 1978, he played Ringo Starr's manager on the television special Ringo, and in 1982, played the voice of Peter Dickinson in Flight of Dragons.

Before Three's Company, he occasionally appeared in the first five seasons of The Waltons on CBS as the Reverend Matthew Fordwick . He played a disturbed soldier/patient in one episode of M*A*S*H in 1973. He appeared in an episode of Hawaii Five-0 and in the Charles Bronson film The Stone Killer alongside Norman Fell. He also guest starred in one episode of The Cosby Show in 1991.

After Three's Company

After Three's Company he appeared in a number of movies, most notably Problem Child and its first sequel. He appeared in the Oscar-winning Sling Blade and Noises Off and played the lead role in Blake Edwards' 1989 film Skin Deep. He starred with Markie Post in the early-1990s sitcom Hearts Afire and on the 1980s police comedy-drama Hooperman.

He starred in many made-for-TV movies including Stephen King's It, Danielle Steel's Heartbeat with Polly Draper, It Came From the Sky in 1999 with Yasmine Bleeth and made guest appearances on TV shows such as Ally McBeal, Scrubs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Felicity. He also provided the voice of the title character in the PBS animated children's show Clifford the Big Red Dog, a role for which he received two Emmy nominations. He starred alongside kickboxing actor Olivier Gruner for the buddy cop film Mercenary.

He played Claude Pichon in The Dinner Party at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway, which was written by Neil Simon. It ran for three hundred and sixty-four performances. Ritter won the Theatre World Award in 2001 for his performance in that work.

In 2002, he made a TV comeback with the ABC family sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter . His final two film appearances were as the store manager in Bad Santa , starring personal friend Billy Bob Thornton and Bernie Mac, and Clifford's Really Big Movie. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Personal life

He married twice, first to actress Nancy Morgan and then to actress Amy Yasbeck . Yasbeck had played his wife or love interest in the first two Problem Child movies . Yasbeck also played Ritter's wife in two sitcom appearances. In 1991, both were guest stars on The Cosby Show, where Yasbeck played the in-labor wife of Ritter's basketball coach character. In 1996, Ritter guest starred on Yasbeck's sitcom Wings as the estranged husband of Yasbeck's character Casey. Ritter and Morgan had three children: Carly, Tyler, and Jason. He and Yasbeck had one daughter, Stella.

Death

On September 11, 2003, Ritter felt ill while rehearsing scenes for a season 2 episode of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. He was taken across the street to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, where he died later that evening, around 10:45pm -PST. Ritter was 6 days short of his 55th birthday. The cause of his death was an aortic dissection caused by a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect. His father had died of a heart attack almost thirty years earlier. Years later Ritter's wife testified in court that he had concerns for his own health because of the cause of his father's death. He was buried at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Aftermath

8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter was later retitled 8 Simple Rules following Ritter's death and continued for two more seasons until its cancellation on April 15, 2005. His character, Paul Hennessy, was said to have died after collapsing in a grocery store. The network aired the three episodes of Season 2 that had been taped before his death. The remainder of the show's season dealt with the family trying to grapple with their patriarch's death. New male characters, played by James Garner and David Spade, were later added as the main cast.

In 2004, he was given an Emmy nomination posthumously for playing Paul Hennessey in 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. He lost to Kelsey Grammer for Frasier. Upon accepting his trophy, Grammer's remarks included comments made in tribute and remembrance of Ritter.

His last films, Bad Santa and Clifford's Really Big Movie, along with an episode of Scrubs and King of the Hill, were dedicated in his memory. On June 6, 2008 a mural of Ritter painted by Eloy Torrez was dedicated at Hollywood High School.

Wrongful-death lawsuit

Following his death, his widow Amy Yasbeck filed a $67 million wrongful death suit against radiologist Dr. Matthew Lotysch and cardiologist Dr. Joseph Lee. She alleged that Lee, who treated her husband on the day of his death, misdiagnosed his condition as a heart attack, and Lotysch, who had given him a full-body scan two years earlier, failed at that time to detect an enlargement of Ritter's aorta. The trial began on February 11, 2008, in Los Angeles County Superior Court. On March 14, 2008, the defendants were found not responsible for Ritter's death by a jury vote of 9–3. Several other defendants have settled out of court for a total of $14 million, including $9.4 million paid by Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.