American actor, comedian and voice-over artist John Ritter was the son of the legendary singer/actor Tex Ritter and his actress wife Dorothy Fay Southworth. He was born as Jonathan Southworth Ritter on September 17, 1948 in Burbank, California. He had a brother, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and became a lawyer. He enrolled at Hollywood High School, was the student body president and became the most popular student ever. He then attended the University of Southern California with a major in Psychology and a minor in Architecture.

His first television appearance was in The Dating Game (1970) as a contestant and he won a vacation to Lake Havasu, Arizona. He was able to join an acting class taught by Nina Foch. He also shifted to Theater Arts in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drama. He studied acting with Stella Adler at the Harvey Lembeck Comendy Workshop. He appeared in a series of stage plays in England, Scotland, Holland and Germany between 1968 and 1969.

John Ritter was famous for playing the role of Jack Tripper in the hit ABC sitcom Three’s Company where he won an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in 1984. However, his acting debut was on Hawaii Five-O (1968) and he played several roles. He played a campus revolutionary in the film Dan August (1970) with Burt Reynolds and Normal Fell. He starred in several films and he was known for Hearts Afire (1992), Sling Blade (1996) and Bad Santa (2003). He has guest appearances for Medical Center (1969), Mary Tyler Moore (1970), The Waltons (1971), M*A*S*H* (1972), The Bob Newhart Show (1972), The Streets of San Francisco (1972), Kojak (1973) and Rhoda (1974).

Before he played Jack Tripper on the small screen, he made a box office debut in the movie Nickolodeon (1976). He worked with his close friend, Jenny Sullivan, in Breakfast in Bed (1977). His first animated movie was The Flight of the Dragons (1982).  He has several television series, big screen appearances, and voice-over performances in both television and film.

Ritter was married twice. In 1977, he married actress Nancy Morgan and they had three children: Jason, Carly and Tyler. They were divorced in 1996. On September 18, 1999, he married actress Amy Yasbeck. They had one daughter, Stella, who was born on 1998, a year before they got married. On September 11, 2003, John Ritter died because of aortic dissection caused by a previously undiagnosed congenital heart disease.

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