John Ritter - Career

Career

Ritter headlined several stage performances before he was made a star by appearing in the hit ABC sitcom Three's Company (the Americanized version of the 1970s British Thames Television series Man About the House) in 1977, playing a single ladies' man and culinary student, Jack Tripper, who lives with two female roommates. The females originally were Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers). While in later years the character of Janet remained, Somers was fired and other characters replaced her, including Chrissy's cousin Cindy (Jenilee Harrison), and unrelated roommate Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes). Jack pretended to be gay to keep the landlords appeased over their living arrangements. The show spent several seasons near the top of the TV ratings in the U.S. before ending in 1984. Ritter performed for one 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 Three's Company, Ritter appeared in the films Hero at Large, Americathon, and They All Laughed.

In 1978, Ritter played Ringo Starr's manager on the television special Ringo, and in 1982, provided the voice of Peter Dickinson in Flight of Dragons. Hooperman was Ritter's first acting role after Three's Company. In the show, he played Detective Harry Hooperman who inherits a run down apartment building. He hires Susan Smith (Debrah Farentino). A relationship follows and Hooperman must juggle work, love, plus the antics of Bijoux the dog. John was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his work on Hooperman in 1988. Ritter won a People's Choice Award for this role. In 1992-95, Ritter returned to TV for three seasons as John Hartman, aide to the Senator in "Hearts Afire". This series starred Markie Post (of The Fall Guy and Night Court fame) as Georgie Anne Lahti and Billy Bob Thornton as Billy Bob Davis. Ritter played the role of "Dad" in the music video Graham Nash's song "Innocent Eyes" from the 1996 album of the same name.

After his time on TV Ritter appeared in a number of movies, most notably Problem Child and its first sequel. He appeared in the Oscar-winning Sling Blade (playing a gay, kindhearted discount store manager) and Noises Off and played the lead role in Blake Edwards' 1989 film Skin Deep. Ritter starred in many made-for-TV movies, including Gramps (1995), co-starring with Andy Griffith, Rob Hedden's The Colony (1995) with Hal Linden, Stephen King's It, Danielle Steel's Heartbeat with Polly Draper, and It Came From the Sky in 1999 with Yasmine Bleeth, and made guest appearances on TV shows, such as "Felicity", Ally McBeal, Scrubs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as an episode of Law & Order: SVU where the case involves the beating of a seven-months-pregnant woman, whose unborn child has been torn from her body via a primitive cesarean section. Among the many witnesses questioned is the woman's husband, a psychiatrist with several devastating secrets and knows more about his wife's beating than he's willing to admit. John 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. Ritter played Claude Pichon in The Dinner Party (2000) 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.