John Ritter's Mother, an Actress, Dies
Thu Nov 13, 4:06 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - Dorothy Fay Ritter, the mother of late actor John Ritter (news) and star of several B-movie Westerns in the 1930s and '40s, has died. She was 88.
The wife of singing cowboy Tex Ritter (news) died Nov. 5 of natural causes at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, said her son, Tom.
Ritter, who played opposite Buck Jones (news), William "Wild Bill" Elliott and other western stars, had a stroke in 1987 and moved to the retirement home two years later.
Born Dorothy Fay Southworth in Prescott, Ariz., Ritter attended University of Southern California in Los Angeles and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
"She was very outgoing, very charming — the sort of person who walks into a room and the energy is driven to her," Tom Ritter told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.
"My brother was very much his mom's son," he added. John Ritter, who starred in "Three's Company" and other sitcoms, died Sept. 11 at age 54 of a previously undetected heart problem.
Dorothy Ritter made four westerns with Tex Ritter but gave up show business shortly after they married in 1941. They were living in Nashville when Tex Ritter died in 1974, and Dorothy moved back to California in 1981.
In addition to her son, Ritter is survived by four grandchildren.
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