They say an Aortic dissection can be caused by high blood pressure.

With an actor as busy as John was it wouldn't have surprised me if he never took the time to go to a doctor. His blood pressure must have been through the roof.

Then again lots of people gain weight when they get older and don't have bad things happen to their heart. It could be possible it just would have happened regardless of whether he was still as slim as he was when he was Jack Tripper.

However there were probably clues he should have noticed. Apparently in the later years John was having trouble breathing, according to Robby Benson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaXznW3hH3Y

I really wonder what his diet was. He must have been eating five fried bacon and cheese sandwiches a day in the 90s to gain his weight.

Another cause of an aortic dissection is Blunt trauma to the chest, such as hitting the steering wheel of a car during an accident. And all those pratfalls didn't help. It always seemed like John never got hurt with all the falls he took on Three's Company, but maybe he did.

High blood pressure can happen to people of every weight. Poor diet doesn't help, and correcting diet can reduce HBP, but often medications are also needed to control it. Aortic aneurysm can also be genetic, kind of a like a "ticking time bomb." It's just a matter of time before it happens.

You mentioned trauma, but this needs to be a sudden, forceful blow to the chest to instigate the tearing of the artery. I think in Ritter's case, it wasn't a cumulative effect of pratfalls, I think it was damage incurred by untreated high blood pressure over time. Apparently two years before his death, the doctors failed to recognize an enlarged aorta, so that means it had been building over time until the actual dissection (or tear) the day of his death.

(My dad had this, so I'm familiar. He was in tip-top shape and had HBP. They were able to catch it in time and he had surgery to correct it.)

High blood pressure can happen to people of every weight. Poor diet doesn't help, and correcting diet can reduce HBP, but often medications are also needed to control it. Aortic aneurysm can also be genetic, kind of a like a "ticking time bomb." It's just a matter of time before it happens.

You mentioned trauma, but this needs to be a sudden, forceful blow to the chest to instigate the tearing of the artery. I think in Ritter's case, it wasn't a cumulative effect of pratfalls, I think it was damage incurred by untreated high blood pressure over time. Apparently two years before his death, the doctors failed to recognize an enlarged aorta, so that means it had been building over time until the actual dissection (or tear) the day of his death.

(My dad had this, so I'm familiar. He was in tip-top shape and had HBP. They were able to catch it in time and he had surgery to correct it.)
Boy, how scary it would be were that genetic. Good thing I don't think that runs in my family!

I still miss him.