Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Hump Day Hottie

This weeks Hump Day Hottie was born on September 17, 1948 in Burbank, CA.
He attended Hollywood High School, where he was Student Body President.
He went on to the University of Southern California, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) fraternity, majored in psychology and minored in architecture.
He was bachelor number three on an episode of The Dating Game prior to starting his acting career.
At the start of his career he made guest appearances on shows like Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H*, Kojak, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Starsky & Hutch and had a small recurring role on The Waltons as Reverend Matthew Fordwick.
Right before his major break in television he married Nancy Morgan and had 3 children: Carly, Tyler & Jason. They divorced in 1996 and he remarried in 1999 to Amy Yasbeck and had one more child, Stella.
Before they married Yasbeck had played opposite HDH as his wife in 2 movies and an episode of The Bill Cosby Show.
In 1977 HDH received his big break and shot to major stardom playing Jack Tripper, a single ladies’ man and culinary student who lived with two female roommates. He pretended to be gay to keep the landlords appeased over their living arrangement. Threes Company continued until 1984 and is still in syndication today.
After the end of the sit-com HDH appeared in a few movies including Problem Child 1 & 2 and many made for TV movies. He also did guest appearances in shows such as Ally McBeal, Scrubs & Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In 2002, he made a comeback with the family sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
On September 11, 2003 he became ill during rehearsals. He was taken across the street to the hospital , where he died hours later in the same hospital in which he was born.
He passed away on his daughter Stella’s 5th birthday from an aortic dissection caused by a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect.
After his death many movies and TV episodes were dedicated to his memory including Bad Santa, a Scrubs episode, King of The Hill, as well as the entire season of 8 Simple Rules.
He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard.












This weeks Hump Day Hottie is ~ John Ritter

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay! Good pick. Three's Company is a classic!!!!

laura b. said...

Oh, I miss him so much. I even liked him as he got older and sort of chubby. His son Jason looks so much like him...

Moonbeam said...

I miss him. He was a funny guy. He left behind classic sitcoms that tickled your funny bone.

Tara said...

Very good choice, I definitely miss him. It was so sad and sudden about his death. I loved him in "8 Simple Rules".

David in DC said...

Great Choice

dmarks said...

I agree; great choice. I also remember him in Stephen King's IT, and the movie about the original Oz author.

Is this the first deceased HDH?

David in DC said...

Rolling Stone once raised a ruckus with a cover that featured a shirtless picture of a young Jim Morrison, captioned "He's Hot, He's Sexy, He's Dead".

Mrs. Hairy Woman said...

I loved him on Three's Company.. He was awesome.. and still a very sweet guy..His talent is trully missed..And so is he.. great choice..

Anonymous said...

Tripper....what more can I say?

Lydia said...

He is a good choice. In addition to some of the shows you mention I remember him in a thing called Hooperman. He played a police detective, which is about all I can recall except that I had a bit of a crush on him too. Heh, I wouldn't have recalled that if it weren't for your post!

Rachel said...

Playtah ~ I still love Three's Company. Jack Tripper and the verbal and physical comedy reminds me of you.

l.b. ~ I miss him too. He was always charming and likeable.

moonbeam ~ Jack Tripper still makes me laugh out loud.

tara ~ I liked 8 Simple Rules too and I thought that they way they handled his passing was excellent.

David in DC ~ Thanks

dmarks ~ I believe that this is the first deceased HDH.

David In DC ~ That is a bit tasteless but Jim Morrison probably loved it.

babybull40 ~ He had verbal and physical comedic timing that was fantastic.

Evil-e ~ Uh, can't think of a thing!

lydia ~ I did see that he was in Hooperman but there was a lot of information that I had to leave because I didn't want to make it too long.

egan said...

I'm late on this one, but I love this guy. I was so sad when he passed away. Such a tragic loss. Thanks for the great bio on him.

dmarks said...

Hooperman???? I can't believe I didn't mention that one as well. I'm not big on cop shows, and have only really ever liked two of them. Ever. "Hooperman" was one of them.