Stella Ritter, John Ritter Daughter: Interesting Facts About Her!

Stella Ritter (now Noah Ritter) is the celebrity child of the late actor John Ritter and his wife Amy Yasbeck. Both his late father, John Ritter, and his mother, Jasbick, were prominent in TV series and films. Stella’s father John is best known for playing Jack Tripper in Three’s Company (1977-1984), for which he won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe in 1984.

Stella’s mother Jasbik is also best known for her role as Casey Chapel Davenport on Wings from 1994 to 1997. Amy is also famous for her portrayal of the mermaid Madison in the 1988 television film Splash, Too (originally played by Daryl Hannah in Splash).

Stella Ritter, John and Amy’s only child, has quite a story to tell, from the tragedy she suffered at an early age to her transformation into another identity. Find out how Ritter coped with it all, read more below. Also, read about her personal life and more along the way.

Stella Ritter Is From the Actors’ Family 

Ritter (full name Stella Dorothy Ritter) was born on 11 September 1998. At birth, he was assigned the female gender by his parents and bore the name Stella before transitioning to the other gender. Stella’s paternal grandfather, Tex Ritter, was a country music singer and actor who was popular from the mid-1930s to the 1960s.

Tex is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Ritter’s grandmother Dorothy Fay, also John’s mother, was an actress, best known for appearing in western films, some of them Frontier Scout (1938), Song of the Buckaroo (1938), Sundown on the Prairie (1939), Laurin Westward (1939), and Rainbow Over the Range (1940).

Looking at her red-haired mother, Ritter could very well have Irish or Scottish ancestry after her mother’s name.

For two years Stella attended a cooperative nursery school. Her school was on Mullholland Drive. In addition, two of Ritter’s favorite places to eat are Jerry’s Deli and The Good Earth Restaurant.

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How Stella Ritter Got Her Name?

In her book With Love And Laughter, John Ritter, Jasbeck reveals how she eventually named her only child John – Stella. Amy writes that when she was pregnant with Stella, they were in Italy and did not yet know the sex of the baby.

Before that, they had traveled the canals in gondolas, dined in trattorias, and stayed in cathedrals. On the last day of their holiday, Amy says that John struggled to get their bags out of the boat at the train station. It was then that her eyes met the statue of Mary. Stella’s mother says how hypnotized she was when she saw the statue.

However, the long inscription in Latin at the base of the statue jumped out at her. For hundreds of years, people had called this statue Stella Maris, the Star of the Sea. She then rushed to John and said that if they ever had a daughter, they should name her Stella.

“He was real quiet for a minute, blinked a couple of times, bit his lower lip, and then said, “Did you swipe a gondola?
What the hell is in your suitcase?”

Amy remembered.

Although the late actor didn’t say much when he first heard the word, when they boarded the train, Jasbeck recounts how her husband leaned close to her ear and said, “Like Brando… Like a tram… like Stella… I like it.”

Ritter’s Famous Parents

Stella’s actor parents were married on 18 September 1999 in Ohio.

Their relationship began on the set of the NBC series Wings. According to some people close to the couple, John and Jack fell in love on the set of Hearts Afire. Stella’s father was still married to Nancy at the time, but they separated in September 1996 and the actor married Amy on 18 September 1999. They also starred together in the 1991 film Problem Child 2.

Before Jack, John had two sons and a daughter with actress Nancy Morgan. The couple was married from 1977 until their divorce in 1996.

Jack is also a good friend of actor Billy Bob Thornton.

Stella Ritter Has Some Film Credits 

Stella Ritter’s first Hollywood appearance was in director Jeremy Conner’s 2007 television film That’s My Friend. In the 30-minute film, starring Mike Blowworth and Joe Brown, Stella appears as a girl at school.

Ritter then voiced Dani, a young girl who removes a stone from Namazu’s back, in the 2012 short animated adventure film The Namazu.

The following year, in 2013, Ritter again acted as a voice actress in the short animated comedy Hannah Lost Her Smile.

Stella Ritter’s Siblings

Stella has an older half-sister, Carly Ritter, from her father’s relationship with Nancy Morgan Ritter. Carly, who is also a country singer, graduated from Crossroads School in Santa Monica and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Vassar College. Stella’s half-sister Carly has worked for several non-profit organizations and has also released an album entitled Carly Ritter.

In addition to Carly, Stella has an older half-brother, Jason Ritter, and another half-brother, Tyler Ritter. Both are actors and were also born into John’s relationship with Nancy. Jason is known for his roles in films and TV series such as Gravity Falls, Raising Dion, Frozen II, and Freddy vs Jason. Stella’s other brother Tyler has also appeared in Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, Agents Of Shield, NCIS, The Good Doctor, and others.

Stella Lost Her Father On His Fifth Birthday

John’s widow Amy Yasbeck told Today in 2010 that her husband and Stella’s father died on the night of 11 September 2003. Amy added that the news of the deaths was devastating for her children. It was an unfortunate coincidence that that was also Stella’s fifth birthday. In addition, her first day at school was a few days away.

Ritter’s father was only 54 when he collapsed on the set of his popular TV series 8 Simple Rules… for Dating My Teenage Daughter. The Emmy Award-winning actor began to feel very unwell on the set and started sweating, vomiting, and complaining of chest pains. He was rushed across the street to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center. However, the doctor misdiagnosed him and treated him for a heart attack. John eventually lost his life on the operating table.

Later reports claimed that the main cause of death was an undiagnosed aortic dissection.

Stella’s Mother, Amy Yasbeck Filed a Wrongful Death Suit Of Her Husband

A year after John’s death in 2004, his widow sued doctors and Providence St Joseph Medical Centre, claiming that the comic actor died because doctors mistakenly treated him for a heart attack instead of a ruptured aorta.

The family’s lawyer, Moses Lebovits, told the court in his opening statement that the doctors had failed to perform a chest X-ray on Ritter, which would have revealed the ruptured aorta. However, lawyers for radiologist Matthew Lotysch and cardiologist Joseph Lee stressed to the jury that Ritter was in a serious condition in the hospital and that they did everything possible to save his life.

Later, Ritter’s family allegedly entered into a settlement agreement with the hospital and several other defendants for $14 million USD.

Four years later, Amy sued again for $67 million US dollars, the amount she originally claimed her husband would have earned during his lifetime. She specifically sued the Emergency Medical Services cardiologist and radiologist who performed the body scans two years before her husband’s death.

Amy Tells, Stella Is Just Like Her Late Father

John’s widow, Jasbek, admitted in a 2010 interview with CNN that Stella often reminded her of her late husband.

“She is ridiculous. She’s so, so funny and she’s also the most avid reader and absorber of comedy like John was. He absorbed Jerry Lewis, Lucille Ball, Dick Van Dyke, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, all those guys. … Stella has all that, plus her dad, plus she loves Monty Python, The Mighty Boosh, all of the British comedies crack her up,”

Amy pointed out the similarities between her then-daughter Stella and her husband. She went on to explain that some of them leave her in the dust, and she wants to know how it is that there are so many references in Stella’s choices and behavior.

Growing Up Stella Loved Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert

At the above hearing, Yasbick also revealed that her daughter Stella knows the culture, pop culture, history, and current events. Her mother explained that Stella had just turned 12 and all she watched was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and “she understood! It’s so much fun.”

Ritter Had A Gene Test

After learning that her husband had died because of a misdiagnosis, Stella’s mum took a revolutionary approach to protect her children from the same fate.

In the early months of 2010, she worked with Dr. Milewicz and her UT-Houston team to find the genes that caused the Three’s Company actor’s death.

The Wings star encouraged around 10 000 people to collect samples of her genes. After the study, the results helped them isolate four genes that had a link to aortic aneurysms.

The subjects included Jasbeck’s then 11-year-old daughter Stella and John’s three older children. Stella was scanned annually for several years afterward.

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Stella Ritter Chose To Change Her Gender

In September 2016, Stella chose to become a man. He was 18 at the time. Later, Ritter made the gender change official, followed by an official name change. Stella took on a new pseudonym, Noah Lee Ritter.

Her mother and half-brother, actor Jason Ritter, were deeply supportive of Stella’s decision. Some sources report that Ritter family insiders claim that John would also have supported whatever his child wanted to do. Radar Online claims

Noah had decided to transition during high school but didn’t follow through until he was 18.

Stella Ritter Went Private After His Gender Change

Since the whole gender reassignment thing, Stella has gone incognito from the public, privatizing all her social sites. Only a few pictures of him have been released after the operation. The few pictures that have been released show that he has facial hair, probably due to the treatment he has received. A picture on Instagram showing Noah with a mustache and chin stubble has since been deleted. So what he is up to these days is anyone’s guess.

Quick Facts About Stella Ritter