Comedian Ritter an effortless professional

LOS ANGELES -- John Ritter's ability to coax big laughs out of sitcom pratfalls and punchlines inspired his colleagues.\n"I learned so much from him. He was the best physical comic I've ever watched," actress Suzanne Somers, who co-starred with Ritter in "Three's Company," said Friday.\n"All my physical comedy in 'Freaky Friday' is due to him," said actress Jamie Lee Curtis.\nRitter, 54, became ill Thursday while working on his ABC series "8 Simple Rules ... For Dating My Teenage Daughter" and underwent surgery at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank for a tear in his aorta. He died shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, publicist Lisa Kasteler said.\nThe son of Tex Ritter, a Western film star and country musician, Ritter was an effortless funnyman who -- given the chance -- could handle drama as well. Friends recalled him as loving and buoyant.\n"It's like there is a big tear in the world's heart," actor Henry Winkler told "Entertainment Tonight" on Friday. "He was extraordinary in every aspect of his life, especially as a father. His children were there at every moment of his life."\nWinkler co-starred with Ritter on Broadway in Neil Simon's "The Dinner Party" and was to make a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom. He was on the set Thursday for rehearsal when he was told Ritter had taken ill.\n"I'm shocked and heartbroken and so sad for his family. I cannot find words to express my sorrow -- such a great loss to the joy in the world," Joyce DeWitt, who co-starred in ABC's "Three's Company," told "Entertainment Tonight."\nThe sitcom, which aired from 1977-84 and brought a new level of risque humor to TV, was the No. 1 comedy in the 1979-80 season and regularly part of the top 10.\nRitter played a handsome but goofy bachelor who hinted he was gay so he could live with his two female roommates without raising eyebrows. Sexual double-entendres were the order of the day.\n"I was the class clown, but I was also student body president in high school," Ritter, a Beverly Hills native told The Associated Press in a 1992 interview. "I had my serious side -- I idolized Bobby Kennedy, he was my role model. But so was Jerry Lewis."\nFuneral plans were pending.