DeWitt shared a “wonderfully joyous” physical chemistry with Ritter.

Three’s Company star Joyce DeWitt says she and late costar John Ritter ‘communicated kinesthetically’ as she recalls their chemistry

DeWitt shared a “wonderfully joyous” physical chemistry with Ritter.

By Leigh Blickley

September 15, 2026 10:56 a.m. ET

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John Ritter and Joyce DeWitt in 1981. Credit:

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty

- Joyce DeWitt is remembering her *Three’s Company* costar John Ritter.

- DeWitt said she and Ritter had “wonderfully joyous” physical chemistry on set.

- Ritter died in 2003 at the age of 54 from an aortic dissection.

Joyce DeWitt is remembering her late friend and costar John Ritter, 23 years after his death.

DeWitt recalled her “wonderfully joyous” physical chemistry with Ritter while speaking with PEOPLE at The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health’s Evening From the Heart L.A. gala on Saturday — one day after the anniversary of his death. Ritter died at 54 on Sept. 11, 2003, after suffering a thoracic aortic dissection while rehearsing for his sitcom *8 Simple Rules... for Dating my Teenage Daughter**.* His foundation, established by Ritter’s widow Amy Yasbeck, has helped “bring information, attention, and awareness” to the medical emergency that took his life.

“I’ve always felt that John, even in his passing, was being of service,” DeWitt told PEOPLE.

She also spoke of Ritter’s comedic genius, and recalled their immediate on-set chemistry when *Three’s Company* started in 1977. The sitcom, which ran until 1984, followed three single roommates — Janet Wood (DeWitt), Jack Tripper (Ritter), and Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers) — in an apartment in Santa Monica. (When Somers left the show after the fifth season, she was replaced by Jenilee Harrison as Cindy Snow and then Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden.)

“For John and I, the day that we met, our bodies were talking to each other,” DeWitt told PEOPLE of her and Ritter’s costar connection. “It’s like we knew instantly, like if he swung high, I ducked low. If I ran low, he would swing high.”

She continued, “I always say we communicated kinesthetically. We didn’t even have to talk. My body knew what his body was going to do and his knew what mine was going to do. And that was just there from the moment that we met.”

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That physical side of acting “was wonderfully joyous to do” with Ritter, DeWitt said, adding that when you’re performing comedy, you can’t have “any hesitation or regard for safety or how you’re going to fall.”

“You rehearse it like choreography so that you know the other person is safe and you will be too. Then you just fly at each other with all your energy and hope you bounce correctly backwards and that you survive it,” DeWitt explained. “And the fun of that is extraordinary. And the audience, I think, can see and feel the realness of it and get caught up in the play of it, which is so joyful.”

Joyce DeWitt and John Ritter on ‘Three’s Company’.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

DeWitt said it was a privilege to be a part of a show that “can still make people laugh,” nearly 50 years after its debut.

“If as an actor you are given the opportunity to do something that will cause laughter, it’s a great gift that you get to do this,” DeWitt told PEOPLE. “The truth is we were willing to do any stupid thing we could think of that we thought would make people laugh. I always used to say *Three’s Company* is a safe place for grownups to play. They know that whatever disaster happens, by 9:30 everything’s going to be fine.”

Following the success of *Three’s Company*, Ritter went on to appear and voice characters on series like *Hooperman*, *It*, *Hearts Afire*, and *Clifford the Big Red Dog* before landing his final role of Paul Hennessy on *8 Simple Rules.*

His *8 Simple Rules* costar Kaley Cuoco also opened up about his death during Saturday’s event, calling it “one of the worst days of my life.”

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“I realized that I actually only spent a year and a half with him, which is so strange, because he meant so much to me, and he was so special,” Cuoco shared at Evening from the Heart L.A., noting Ritter’s ability to “lead the way” and make “everyone laugh.”

She added, “He was constantly whispering into my ear—‘The audience likes when you mess up. Mess up!’ He would just stop a take and say, ‘Does anyone else have to pee?’ It’s like, ‘We’re rolling here!’ He was so funny,” Cuoco recalled. “I took all that with me in my life, and the jobs I had after him. But he always has been the North Star in my career, and someone that I adore.”

The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health is currently promoting Aortic Dissection Awareness Week from Sept. 13 to Sept 19.

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