Some deaths among celebrities have been known to cause a lot of controversies, followed by bitter lawsuits with large sums of money demanded as severance pay. The death of actor and comedian John Ritter was no exception. After his death, his widow Amy Yasbeck attacked the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center with a wrongful death suit for $67 million. Although the doctors were acquitted of all charges, the Ritter family still received part of the trial money from the hospital.
John was one of Hollywood’s greatest comic book actors, who was honored for his services to the entertainment industry with several awards and nominations. In 1984, he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Leading Actors in Comedy Series and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in the Musical/Comedy category; both awards were given to him for his role in Three’s Company. The year before he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard. In 1988, he won the People’s Choice Awards in the Favorite Actor category for his role in Hooper man.
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John Ritter Biography
Jonathan Southworth Ritter was born in Burbank, California, on September 17, 1948. His father, Tex Ritter, was a popular country singer and his mother, Dorothy Fay, was an actress. He grew up in California alongside his older brother, Tom Ritter, who overcame cerebral palsy as a child.
John attended Hollywood High School, where he was president of the student body. After graduating high school, he went to the University of Southern California, where he studied psychology with a minor in architecture. John Ritter chose his course of study with plans to pursue a career in politics; however, he later changed his major and graduated with a degree in theater arts in 1971. He then joined the USC School of Dramatic Arts to hone his acting skills. After joining his acting class, he toured England, Scotland, Holland, and Germany with plays while still a student.
John Ritter Net Worth
The net worth of John Ritter is said to have been a whopping $20 million at the time of his death. His fortune is said to have come from his acting career in the entertainment industry, where he is said to have made a name for himself as a talented comedian.
Was He Gay?
John Ritter was not a gay man; with his record of two fertile marriages and four offspring from both marriages, it can be said with certainty that John was undoubtedly heterosexual.
Wife, Son, Daughters
John Ritter was married twice in his life, and both marriages were fruitful. He had a child from his relationship with Amy Yasbeck, which lasted from 1999 until his death in 2003. Nancy Morgan, who was his wife from 1977 to 1996, gave him three children.
Tyler and Jason followed in their father’s footsteps and built successful careers as actors in Hollywood. His daughter Carly is also an actress and songwriter, but she has not achieved the same fame as her brothers. Stella Ritter, John’s youngest child, switched from a woman to a man and took on a new identity as Noah Ritter.
How Hid He Die?
During the rehearsals for 8 simple rules for dating my teenage daughter, the famous actor began to feel pain in the area of his heart. He sweated and vomited profusely when he was taken to the Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center across the street, which happened to be the same place where he was born. The doctors who took care of him diagnosed a heart attack, but instead of getting better, his condition worsened. He was later diagnosed with an aortic dissection, which for a layman means a tear in the aorta that continues to enlarge. Six days before his 55th birthday, John died during corrective surgery.
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The family held a private funeral for him in Los Angeles on September 15, 2003, with his interment at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery.
The cardiologist Joseph Lee and the radiologist Matthew Lotysch, who took care of John, received a wrongful death suit for $67 million from his wife Amy Yasbeck, who accused Lee of misdiagnosis, accused Lotysch of the whole body scan he had done on John, which failed to properly identify his health condition. As a result, the doctors were found innocent of these charges, and in the opinion of the LA County Supreme Court jury, the doctors were not negligent and therefore cannot be held responsible for John’s death. However, the family of the deceased received over $14 million in compensation, including $9.4 million from the hospital where he died.