Joyce DeWitt Opens Up About Her Last Night Out With John Ritter Weeks Before He Died: ‘It Was Dear, and It Was Precious’

A single phone call, returned with just a minute to spare, gave two longtime friends one final evening together. Years later, the actress still believes something greater was at work that night.

Joyce DeWitt is looking back on what turned out to be her last night with her "Three's Company" co-star, John Ritter. The beloved actor passed away on September 11, 2003. He was 54.

Just a month earlier, in August 2003, DeWitt happened to be in New York at the same time as Ritter without realizing it, she explained during a chat with Page Six. After paparazzi tipped her off that Ritter was in town, she called to see if he wanted to get together.

A few hours passed, and Ritter phoned back just as she was about to head out the door, giving the two of them a chance to set up plans for later that night.

"If he had called one minute later, I would have been out walking to Lincoln Center on my way to a movie," DeWitt marveled, noting that this was before cellphones. "I mean, it's like there was divine assistance in allowing us that time together."

They wound up at an Italian restaurant in the Village with Jim Belushi, where they shared an unforgettable night. "We had such a good time," DeWitt remembered. "It was dear, and it was precious."

Knowing how close that evening came to never happening made it all the more meaningful for DeWitt. "Not knowing that it would be the last time we would hang out together, it was extraordinarily special," she said.

While rehearsing his sitcom "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter," Ritter began experiencing chest pains and severe nausea. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors first treated him for a heart attack.

The actor died that same night, and the cause was later identified as an aortic dissection. Ritter and DeWitt shared the screen with Suzanne Somers on "Three's Company," a sitcom that followed three single roommates across eight seasons from 1977 to 1984.

Somers, who had battled cancer for years, passed away in 2023 at the age of 76. Speaking to People last month, DeWitt shared that she and Ritter clicked from day one, describing it as though their bodies were "talking to each other."

"It's like we knew instantly, like if he swung high, I ducked low. If I ran low, he would swing high," she recalled of their chemistry while attending The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health's Evening From the Heart LA Gala.

"I always say we communicated kinesthetically," she continued. "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."

Along with looking back on the "wonderfully joyous" times they spent playing off each other's comedic timing, DeWitt expressed her wish that the beloved show will "still make people laugh."

"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," she said, adding that knowing viewers continue to find humor in the show almost five decades on is "a mind-blowing experience" and a "great joy."

"We were willing to do any stupid thing we could think of that we thought would make people laugh," DeWitt added. "It didn't matter how stupid it was, we were willing to try it. And if it made them laugh, we felt good about it."