Ritter a nice guy who was good at making people laugh

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/09/2003 (8248 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HE wasn’t the biggest star, he wasn’t the wackiest comic, he didn’t have the biggest entourage or ego and he never held much interest for the tabloids, but Hollywood lost a good one this week.

Actor John Ritter, who would have been 55 next week, died suddenly late Thursday after falling ill on the set of his ABC sitcom, 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter.

The cause of death was listed as a tear in the aorta, the result of an unrecognized flaw in Ritter’s heart.

News of the TV actor’s death came at the same time as reports that Johnny Cash had died. For most observers, Ritter’s death would probably be considered a footnote to the passing of a country-music legend, but to those of us who watch television for a living, Ritter’s sudden demise was shocking and very, very sad.

He was, in short, a decent, down-to-earth, talented and genuinely funny guy, one of those rare showbiz creatures who managed to attain and maintain stardom without ever letting it go to his head.

Because this job requires me to spend significant chunks of time each year in Los Angeles, screening new TV shows and interviewing the stars and producers who make them, folks back home often ask about the celebrities I’ve encountered along the way.

One of the most common queries is, “Of all the famous people you’ve met, who’s the nicest?” And whenever that question is asked, the first name that comes to mind has always been John Ritter’s.

When it came to dealing with the media and talking about his life and career, Ritter was a class act.

At network-sponsored social gatherings during the TV industry’s semi-annual press tours, where stars make contractually obligated appearances to meet and mingle with television critics from all over North America, Ritter was a guy who always showed up early, stayed late, behaved graciously and seemed most times to be enjoying, rather than just enduring, the opportunity to hang around and chat about showbiz, TV or whichever other subject came up.

From all appearances, he was a fellow who loved to laugh almost as much as he loved to make other people laugh.

And in person even more than on TV, he knew how to make people laugh. In interviews and social situations, Ritter was one of the most charming and funny fellows you could ever hope to meet.

Fellow celebrities spoke with admiration about Ritter’s character, good humour and commitment to his community.

He wasn’t perfect, of course. His failings included a fractured family that came apart in 1997 when he left his wife of 17 years and three children after meeting one of his on-screen co-stars, Amy Yasbeck — whom he eventually married 1999 and with whom he started a second family.

But by showbiz standards — or most other contemporary standards, for that matter — Ritter could rightly have been regarded as a standup guy.

Despite being a child of Hollywood — he was the son of legendary screen cowboy Tex Ritter — he never seemed to get seduced by the inevitable showbiz demons. Maybe that’s because his father insisted that whatever good fortune he achieved in Hollywood would have to be earned.

“My dad said, ‘If you’re going to study acting, study all about the history of the theatre so maybe you could teach or you could be a scene designer. Study writing; study philosophy,'” Ritter recalled last year in an interview with Hollywood insider Luaine Lee.

And so he did. And when Three’s Company made him an enormous star in 1977, he seemed to keep his success in the proper perspective.

He did the same during the various ups and downs of his 30-year career — which included such TV titles as Hooperman, Hearts Afire and even Fish Police, along with big-screen credits ranging from Skin Deep to Sling Blade.

And when it came time for his oldest son, Jason, to try his hand at acting, Ritter laid down the same demands that his father had made on him.

“When I said I wanted to be an actor, he said that I would have to… go to college and really study it and learn all about it, and not just sort of ride in on whatever natural sort of thing I had,” Jason Ritter said this summer during interviews for the new CBS drama Joan of Arcadia, in which he has his first regular TV-series role.

“He really wanted me to study.”

Like father, like son.

If he’s lucky, Jason Ritter’s paternally mandated education will have prepared him for a career marked by the sort of longevity, variety and humility that his father achieved.

He might turn out to be a good actor.

But if Jason Ritter really learned his lessons well, what he’ll end up being is a really good guy.

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca