LOS ANGELES (AP) – John Ritter’s ability to coax big laughs out of sitcom pratfalls and punchlines inspired his colleagues.

“I learned so much from him. … He was the best physical comic I’ve ever watched,” actress Suzanne Somers, who co-starred with Ritter in “Three’s Company,” said Friday.

“All my physical comedy in ‘Freaky Friday’ is due to him,” said actress Jamie Lee Curtis.

Ritter, 54, became ill Thursday while working on his ABC series “8 Simple Rules … For Dating My Teenage Daughter” and underwent surgery at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank for a tear in his aorta. He died shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, publicist Lisa Kasteler said.

The son of Tex Ritter, a Western film star and country musician, Ritter was an effortless funnyman who – given the chance – could handle drama as well. Friends recalled him as loving and buoyant.

“It’s like there is a big tear in the world’s heart,” actor Henry Winkler told “Entertainment Tonight” on Friday. “He was extraordinary in every aspect of his life, especially as a father. His children were there at every moment of his life.”

Winkler co-starred with Ritter on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “The Dinner Party” and was to make a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom. He was on the set Thursday for rehearsal when he was told Ritter had taken ill.

“He was more than a comic,” Simon said in a statement. “He was a real actor with a genius for comedy. I loved his performance in ‘The Dinner Party.'”

“I’m shocked and heartbroken and so sad for his family. I cannot find words to express my sorrow – such a great loss to the joy in the world,” Joyce DeWitt, who co-starred in ABC’s “Three’s Company,” told “Entertainment Tonight.”

The sitcom, which aired from 1977-84 and brought a new level of risque humor to TV, was the No. 1 comedy in the 1979-80 season and regularly part of the top 10.

Ritter played a handsome but goofy bachelor who hinted he was gay so he could live with his two female roommates without raising eyebrows. Sexual double-entendres were the order of the day.

Behind the scenes, Somers’ money demands led to clashes with Ritter and DeWitt, and she was eventually written off the show. In a statement Friday, Somers said she and Ritter reconciled at the request of his wife, actress Amy Yasbeck.

“If we had not, today would be unbearable for me,” Somers said. “I am glad I knew him. I am privileged to have worked with him. I am unbelievably sad for his family, and I will miss him.”

Ritter, a Southern California native who lived in Beverly Hills, had appeared in more than 25 television movies and a number of films.

The youngest son of Tex Ritter and actress Dorothy Fay, he graduated from Hollywood High School and earned a degree in drama from the University of Southern California.

“I was the class clown, but I was also student body president in high school,” he told The Associated Press in a 1992 interview. “I had my serious side — I idolized Bobby Kennedy, he was my role model. But so was Jerry Lewis.”

He received an Emmy, Golden Globe and other awards for his “Three’s Company” role and was honored by the Los Angeles Music Center in June with a lifetime achievement award.

Ritter appeared in more than 50 plays nationwide and won critical acclaim for his recent nine-month run in Simon’s production. He had a memorable turn in Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 film “Sling Blade.”

Ritter’s youngest child, Stella, turned 5 the day he died. His 55th birthday was next Wednesday. He was surrounded by producers, co-workers, his wife and his 23-year-old son, Jason, when he died, said Susan Wilcox, his assistant of 22 years.

Ritter was married from 1977 to 1996 to Nancy Morgan, the mother of his three oldest children. He married Yasbeck in 1999. He is also survived by two other children: Carly and Tyler.

No decision had been made Friday about the future of “8 Simple Rules …,” which was to begin its second season Sept. 23, an ABC spokesman said.

Funeral plans were pending.