Priscilla Barnes Fondly Remembers John Ritter's 'Goofball' Energy

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Barnes tells PEOPLE about Ritter's "approachable" style on set, her time working with his son, Jason Ritter, years after John died and her connection to the heart condition that led to the actor's death

By Scott Huver Published on May 5, 2023 04:37PM EDT

Priscilla Barnes is remembering her late Three's Company costar, John Ritter.

Nearly 40 years after Three's Company ended its network run, Barnes showed up to support Ritter's family and their work in his memory, recalling the comic actor's abiding desire to make everyone he worked with feel comfortable.

"John was a goofball," Barnes, 68, told PEOPLE while attending the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health's An Evening from the Heart gala in Hollywood on Thursday.

The actress recalled Ritter's exuberant, almost child-like efforts to warmly welcome everyone into the Three's Company production, whether they were a newcoming regular like Barnes, who joined the cast as the sassy nurse Terri Alden in seasons 6-8, or a guest actor visiting for a week's work.

"The main thing was that when we would have guest stars, he wanted them to feel comfortable," Barnes remembered of her friend, who died in September 2003 at age 54 of an undetected aortic dissection. "He wasn't one of those moody, leave-me-alone actors. He might have been moody in his private life, but he wasn't moody on the set. He really wanted everyone to feel that he was approachable."

"He was like that third-grader that if they liked a girl – or just had any girl in the room – they'd do anything to get her attention, make her laugh, make her feel comfortable," she added with a chuckle.

Barnes noted that Ritter also wanted performers to feel encouraged to experiment and put their own comedic spins on the scripted material. "It was good that way, because when you do other shows, you get all different kinds of personalities, and a show was run by number one on the call sheet," she said. "So if he had had a different personality, it would've been a different experience."

Barnes, who later spent several seasons in a recurring role on Jane the Virgin, said that Ritter also had "a real serious side. He was a big John Lennon fan, so he was a real big 'Give Peace a Chance' guy. He was really progressive, as they would say today."

The actress added that she's enjoyed a warm relationship with the Ritter family in the years since she worked on the sitcom, including sharing the screen with his son Jason in 1999.

"Jason and I had done a film together, a movie called Mumford, but he was 19 years old and I hadn't seen him since he was five and screaming in the dressing room before our show," she laughed. "That was a pleasure."

She's also been wildly impressed with Ritter's wife Amy Yasbeck, whom the actor married in 1999. Barnes has only gotten close with Yasbeck in the years since his passing as she's championed awareness of the condition he experienced through the efforts of the foundation.

"Isn't she fabulous?" Barnes marveled. "I didn't see him when he was with Amy, and knowing her [now], I wished I had. Can you imagine how entertaining and how fun it'd been?"

She recalled how many of the women Ritter had dated in the years following his divorce from his first wife came off somewhat quiet and timid. "But not Amy! I mean, she's full of life. She puts herself out there," Barnes said.

In addition to supporting Ritter's family, Barnes revealed that she had another personal reason for wanting to support the foundation: the same genetic aortic dissection that ended Ritter's life runs in her own family.

"I lost my brother three years ago to the same condition, so this kind of heart disease, runs rampant in my family. I never had any grandparents. They were all dead before I was born," she explained. "I'm glad about what Amy's doing to make people more aware, because people don't really know about it."

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The actor's legacy loomed large at the second annual event, which also reunited Ritter's co-stars from his second hit sitcom, 8 Simple Rules – Katey Sagal, Kaley Cuoco, Amy Davidson and Martin Sanjers – alongside Yasbeck and two of Ritter's four children, sons Tyler and Noah.

"I keep getting asked 'What do you miss about John?'" said Barnes. "I really don't, because he lives on in his kids. Because I know all his kids and I get to see them, and he lives on in his kids and he lives on his Amy. With Amy, you really feel that he's right here."