Kaley Cuoco Pays Tribute To John Ritter On 15th Anniversary Of Co-Star’s Passing


Kaley Cuoco paid tribute to the late sitcom star John Ritter on Instagram Tuesday, taking to the social media platform on the 15th anniversary of his shocking death.

Cuoco was a teenager when she co-starred with Ritter, then 54, on the hit comedy 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, according to The Today Show. Ritter had produced three episodes of the second season of the series when he passed away on Sept. 11, 2003. The former Three’s Company star died from an undetected aortic dissection flaw in his heart, according to the website Web MD.

Now the co-star of one of television’s most successful series The Big Bang Theory, Cuoco, 32, shared her feelings about her television dad with a photo of her kneeling next to his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She wrote in the Instagram caption, “15 years.. love you forever, John! #johnritter you still make me laugh every single day.”

Last week, Cuoco talked about the first time she met Ritter on the set of 8 Simple Rules.

“We had a table read. I had just turned 16 and I wanted to look the part — I played kind of this sexy 16-year-old,” Cuoco told REELZChannel Behind Closed Doors with Natalie Morales, per Today. “So, I wore this, like, spaghetti-strap shirt with, like, a bra strap showing. I’m sitting at the table read and John walks in, he looks at me and he’s like (sternly), ‘You’re playing my daughter. Put a sweater on.'”

“Then he barrels over in this laughter. He took a sweater off a random person in the room — this whole physical act he did — he pulls it off and puts it on me. And he goes, ‘Dress like that from now on.’ That was it. It was amazing. That was my introduction to him. I was in love from that moment on,” she added.

Kaley Cuoco honored with star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame on Oct. 29, 2014.

Ritter died after falling ill on the set of 8 Simple Rules, noted Web MD. He was best known for his role of Jack Tripper in Three’s Company, which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1984. He had won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his comedic portrayal.

His sudden death caught Hollywood by surprise. According to Web MD, an aortic dissection is an abnormal separation of tissues within the walls of the large blood vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.

The issue often results in a weakened blood vessel wall that ruptures, the website stated.

In 2008, a California jury cleared two doctors of negligence and liability in connection with the actor’s illness, the Los Angeles Times wrote. The actor’s family had charged that an emergency room physician at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank — and other doctor who examined Ritter two years earlier — failed to take proper care of him, the newspaper reported.

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