At 77, Joyce DeWitt stepped into the Hollywood spotlight for a rare public appearance, arriving at the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health’s Evening From the Heart LA gala in a vivid orange ensemble and using the occasion to remember one of the most important professional relationships of her career.
The actress, best known for playing Janet Wood on the long-running sitcom Three’s Company, attended the September 12 event at the Sunset Room in Hollywood, where the evening brought together friends, family members and former colleagues of the late John Ritter. The gathering was both a fundraising event for the foundation’s work on aortic health and an opportunity to celebrate Ritter’s life and career.
Hello! Magazine, in a report by Faye James, highlighted DeWitt’s colorful appearance at the gala, where she wore a loose satin-finish orange top with a matching floor-length skirt. A multicolored beaded necklace, cream pointed shoes with bows, silver-toned earrings and multiple bracelets completed the look.
Her bright white hair was styled in a short, feathered cut with a soft fringe, offering a notably different appearance from the dark brunette bob associated with her years as Janet Wood. She smiled for photographs on the purple carpet and was also photographed outside the venue signing an autograph.
But the significance of DeWitt’s appearance went well beyond the fashion moment.
The event placed her back in a setting directly connected to her television history, decades after Three’s Company established her as one of the most recognizable faces of American sitcom television.
A Hollywood evening tied to John Ritter’s legacy
The John Ritter Foundation’s 2026 Evening From the Heart LA gala was held on September 12 and was designed to support the organization’s work surrounding aortic dissection, including awareness, research and assistance for affected families. The foundation’s official event listing describes the gathering as an evening honoring Ritter’s legacy while supporting families impacted by aortic dissection.
The timing carried particular significance. Ritter died on September 11, 2003, at the age of 54, after suffering a thoracic aortic dissection. According to the John Ritter Foundation, his condition was initially treated as a heart attack before the seriousness of the aortic dissection became clear.
Ritter’s death transformed the way his family and friends remembered his career. His widow, actress Amy Yasbeck, established the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health in the weeks following his death, with the organization subsequently focusing on research, education and awareness surrounding thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection.
The foundation says its mission is rooted in the belief that earlier recognition and treatment can improve outcomes. Its current work includes public education, research support and resources for patients, caregivers and families.
This year’s gala also featured a reunion of the cast of Wings, another sitcom closely associated with Yasbeck. The foundation’s event announcement specifically promoted the reunion as one of the night’s attractions.
For DeWitt, however, the evening inevitably carried memories of the actor with whom she had spent eight seasons creating television comedy.
Remembering the chemistry behind Three’s Company
DeWitt and Ritter became one of the central comic partnerships of Three’s Company, which ran from 1977 to 1984. Ritter played Jack Tripper, while DeWitt portrayed Janet Wood and Suzanne Somers played Chrissy Snow.
The series revolved around the three roommates and the misunderstandings created by their unusual living arrangement. Its success depended heavily on timing, physical comedy and the performers’ ability to react to one another quickly.
Speaking with PEOPLE at the September 12 gala, DeWitt described her connection with Ritter as unusually instinctive.
She told the publication that their bodies seemed to communicate from the moment they met, explaining that one performer could anticipate the other’s movement without needing verbal instructions. She described their connection as communicating “kinesthetically,” emphasizing that the physical relationship between their performances developed naturally.
That ability was particularly important in a sitcom built around physical comedy.
DeWitt explained to PEOPLE that such sequences could not simply be improvised without preparation. The actors had to rehearse movements almost like choreography so that they could understand where the other person would be and reduce the risk of injury. Once that preparation was complete, however, the performers could commit themselves fully to the joke.
Her comments offer a glimpse into an aspect of Three’s Company that can be easy to overlook when the show is viewed decades later. What appears spontaneous on screen often depended on precise timing between performers.
Ritter’s Jack Tripper was particularly associated with broad physical comedy, and DeWitt has continued to recall how willingly the cast committed themselves to that style.
In another September interview with PEOPLE, she remembered Ritter’s ability to make his colleagues laugh during rehearsals and described his dedication to even the smallest joke.
That recollection fits the reputation of Three’s Company as a sitcom in which the physical behavior of its characters was as important as the dialogue. The apartment setting created a confined stage for elaborate entrances, exits, misunderstandings and carefully timed reactions.
The enduring place of Three’s Company
Nearly half a century after its premiere, Three’s Company remains one of the defining sitcoms of its era.
The series aired for eight seasons and 172 episodes between 1977 and 1984. DeWitt remained with the show for its entire run, making Janet Wood the role most closely associated with her television career.
The program also became notable for the strength of its central ensemble. Ritter, DeWitt and Somers created the original trio at the heart of the series, while performers including Norman Fell, Audra Lindley, Richard Kline and later Don Knotts helped establish the wider comic world.
Somers eventually left the series following a contract dispute and was replaced in the apartment storyline first by Jenilee Harrison and later by Priscilla Barnes.
The changes did not erase the identity established by the original cast, however. For audiences who discovered the show through reruns and later television distribution, the images of Janet, Jack and Chrissy became inseparable from the show’s identity.
PEOPLE’s recent retrospective on the cast notes that DeWitt has remained primarily associated with stage work since the sitcom ended. Her career after Three’s Company included theatre productions across the country, reflecting a decision to continue working without maintaining the same level of television visibility as some of her former co-stars.
That relative absence from the Hollywood spotlight helps explain why her appearance at the John Ritter Foundation gala attracted attention.
It was not simply another red-carpet appearance by a familiar television actress. It brought DeWitt back into public view in connection with a colleague whose career was intertwined with hers.
A friendship and professional partnership remembered decades later
Ritter’s death occurred more than 20 years ago, yet his connection with the cast of Three’s Company remains an important part of the show’s continuing story.
For DeWitt, remembering Ritter has often meant returning to the working relationship that audiences saw on screen rather than simply focusing on his death.
Her comments about their physical chemistry emphasize trust. In a form of comedy where performers had to move quickly and sometimes fall, duck, collide or change direction within a confined space, knowing how a scene partner would react could make the difference between a routine joke and a memorable one.
PEOPLE reported that DeWitt also credited the energy of that relationship with helping make the comedy feel genuine to viewers.
The distinction is important because Three’s Company was not built around elaborate visual effects or large-scale sets. Much of its humor came from performers sharing a small space and reacting to one another.
That approach placed unusual pressure on timing.
Ritter, DeWitt and Somers had to establish believable relationships while also delivering increasingly complicated comic misunderstandings. The result was a style of sitcom performance that relied heavily on rhythm, reaction and physical commitment.
DeWitt’s recent reflections suggest that the cast’s willingness to take those risks was part of what made the experience memorable for her.
The loss of Suzanne Somers changed the shape of the show’s reunions
DeWitt’s connection to Three’s Company has also been shaped by the loss of Suzanne Somers, who died in 2023 at age 76.
The relationship between DeWitt and Somers had not always been straightforward. Somers’ departure from Three’s Company followed a contract dispute, and the two actresses spent decades largely apart before eventually reconnecting.
In 2012, they appeared together on Somers’ program Suzanne Somers Breaking Through and reflected on their shared history.
After Somers died, DeWitt issued a statement to PEOPLE expressing sympathy for Somers’ family and describing them as a close and caring family. The tribute was another reminder that the passage of time had changed the relationships among the performers who had once occupied the same sitcom apartment every week.
The deaths of Ritter and Somers have inevitably altered the way modern reunions involving the series are experienced. What was once a living ensemble has increasingly become a group of surviving performers looking back at a television era that ended decades ago.
Yet DeWitt has consistently emphasized the positive side of that history.
Why Joyce DeWitt still talks about the show’s laughter
For DeWitt, the enduring value of Three’s Company appears to be less about nostalgia for celebrity and more about the simple effect of comedy.
During her earlier reunion with Somers, DeWitt spoke about the importance of the show giving audiences an opportunity to laugh together and experience joy. Her recent conversations with PEOPLE have returned to a similar theme, with the actress expressing amazement that audiences are still laughing at the series almost 50 years after it first premiered.
That perspective also helps explain why a foundation gala connected to Ritter could feel relevant to her long after the sitcom ended.
The event was not a conventional Three’s Company reunion. Its central purpose was the work of the John Ritter Foundation and its efforts around aortic health. But DeWitt’s presence connected that mission with one of the most recognizable chapters of Ritter’s career.
The foundation itself continues to frame Ritter’s legacy through public education and medical awareness. Its website says the organization has remained committed for more than two decades to raising awareness and improving outcomes for people affected by aortic dissection.
In September 2026, the organization also marked Aortic Dissection Awareness Week from September 13 through 19, emphasizing education about symptoms, risk, emergency care and long-term health.
The timing placed the September 12 gala immediately before that awareness week, giving the evening an added connection to the foundation’s broader annual public-health campaign.
A rare public appearance with a familiar face
For fans of DeWitt, the visual details of the evening offered a rare opportunity to see the actress outside the context of archival Three’s Company footage.
Her orange ensemble, white hair and broad smile stood apart from the image many viewers still associate with Janet Wood. Yet the setting brought that earlier television identity directly back into focus.
DeWitt’s decision to attend also reflected the continuing personal connections created during her years working with Ritter.
More than two decades after his death, the John Ritter Foundation has turned the actor’s legacy into an ongoing public-health mission. At the same time, the memories of his work remain tied to the comedy that first made him famous.
For DeWitt, those memories are especially vivid because she was there beside him, season after season, as Jack Tripper and Janet Wood became one of television’s most recognizable comic pairings.
Her appearance at the 2026 gala therefore carried several layers of meaning at once: a rare public appearance by an actress who has maintained a comparatively private profile, a remembrance of a longtime colleague, a celebration of a beloved television series and support for an organization built from personal loss.
And at the center of DeWitt’s recollections remains the same quality that helped define Three’s Company in the first place: the ability of two performers to understand exactly where the other would move, react and land — and turn that shared instinct into laughter.
For an actress who spent much of her career portraying Janet Wood, it is a fitting way to remember the partnership that helped make the character and the series endure.
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Source: Owink
