| Actor John Ritter Collapses on Set, Dies By Peter Henderson and Kevin Krolicki LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Emmy award-winning actor John Ritter, who gained fame playing bumbling and lovable characters in a pair of television comedies decades apart, collapsed while he was on the set of his new series and died suddenly, his representatives said on Friday. Ritter, who was 54, died on Thursday evening after a coronary artery tore while he was filming "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter." The ABC television comedy had reinvigorated his career and was a centerpiece of the network's upcoming fall season. Ritter, the former star of "Three's Company" was taken to Providence St. Joseph hospital in Burbank, California, across from the studio where he had been working. Surgeons at the hospital were unable to save him after his major coronary artery tore from an undiagnosed condition, his publicists, Wolf-Kasteler & Associates Public Relations, said. Such tears, hard to detect, are often related to high blood pressure and are extremely dangerous, said surgeon Barry Katzen, head of the Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute in Florida. "It is very difficult to predict and as many as half of the patients die, often in minutes or hours," he said. |
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| Ritter was best known for his portrayal of Jack Tripper in the 1970s situation comedy "Three's Company," which won him Emmy, Golden Globe and People's Choice awards. That series, which ran from 1977 to 1984, also starred Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt as Ritter's apartment mates who pretended he was gay to appease a landlord concerned about unmarried couples living together. HEARTBROKEN A prolific actor, Ritter recently reconnected with television audiences as the star of "8 Simple Rules." Ritter played Paul Hennessy in the family comedy about a work-at-home sports columnist helping to raise his precocious daughters which was one of the Walt Disney Co.-owned network's new hits in the 2002 season. "All of us at ABC, Touchstone Television and The Walt Disney Company are shocked and heartbroken at the terrible news of John's passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife and children at this very difficult time," ABC said in a statement. The network, which is struggling to pull itself out of fourth place in the ratings battle, will now have a hole in its key Tuesday-night schedule. Ritter was filming the fourth episode of the new season about to debut, ABC said. Born into a Hollywood family, John Ritter was the son of country singer and actor Tex Ritter and graduated from Hollywood High School, where he was student body president. He graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in drama and went on to act in film, television and on the stage. He died less than a week before his 55th birthday, on Sept. 17, and is survived by his wife, actress Amy Yasbeck and their daughter, Stella and three children, Carly, Tyler and Jason, from his first marriage to Nancy Morgan. Jason Ritter, 23, is an actor who appears in the upcoming CBS series "Joan of Arcadia." Source: Yahoo! News Back to News Index Back Home |
| posted 12 september 2003 at 3:55 p.m. central. story #0030 |