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Tex Ritter

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Tex Ritter
Ritter in 1966
Background information
Birth name	Woodward Maurice Ritter
Born	(1905-01-12)January 12, 1905 Murvaul, Texas, U.S.
Died	January 2, 1974(1974-01-02) (aged 68) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Country
Occupation(s)	Singer actor
Years active	1928–1973
Labels	Columbia, Decca, Capitol
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Fay ​ (m. 1941)​

Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American Country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John Ritter, grandsons Jason Ritter and Tyler Ritter, and granddaughter Carly). He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Woodward Maurice Ritter was born on January 12, 1905, in Murvaul, Texas,^[1] to Martha Elizabeth (née Matthews) and James Everett Ritter. He grew up on his family's farm in Panola County, Texas, and attended grade school in Carthage, Texas. He attended South Park High SchoolinBeaumont, Texas. After graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922^[2] to study pre-law and major in government, political science, and economics. After traveling to Chicago with a musical troupe, he entered Northwestern Law School.^[1]

An early pioneer of country music, Ritter soon became interested in show business. In 1928, he sang on KPRCinHouston, Texas,^[3] a 30-minute program of mostly cowboy songs. That same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the men's chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon (1928). He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs (1931),^[2] the basis for the musical Oklahoma! He also played the part of Sagebrush Charlie in The Round Up (1932)^[4] and Mother Lode (1934).

In 1932, he starred in New York City's first broadcast Western, The Lone Star RangersonWOR, where he sang and told tales of the Old West. Ritter wrote and starred in Cowboy Tom's RounduponWINS in 1933, a daily children's cowboy program aired over two other East Coast stations for three years. He also performed on the radio show WHN Barndance and sang on NBC Radio shows; and appeared in several radio dramas, including CBS's Bobby Benson's Adventures.^[5]

In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles. His motion picture debut was in Song of the Gringo (1936) for Grand National Pictures.^[2] He went on to appear in 70 movies as an actor, and 76 on movie soundtracks. He attracted special attention in 1952 for his rendition of "The Ballad of High Noon" over the opening credits of the celebrated film High Noon, and later sang it at that year's Academy Awards ceremony, where it won Best Original Song.

Ritter's recording career was his most successful period. He was the first artist signed with the newly formed Capitol Records in 1942.^[1]

In 1944, he scored a hit with "I'm Wastin' My Tears on You", which hit number one on the country chart and number 11 on the pop chart. An article in the trade publication Billboard noted 14 years later that with that song, he "reached the style of rhythmic tune that would assure his musical stature".^[6]

In 1952 Ritter recorded "The Ballad of High Noon" for the film High Noon. He performed the track at the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, and it received an Oscar for Best Song that year.^[7]

When television began to compete with movies for American audiences, Ritter began to make appearances on the new medium following 71 straight movie appearances. In 1953, he began performing on Town Hall Party on radio and television in Los Angeles. In 1957, he co-hosted Ranch Party, a syndicated version of the show. He made his national TV debut in 1955 on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee and was one of five rotating hosts for its 1961 NBC-TV spin-off, Five Star Jubilee.

Ritter became one of the founding members of the Country Music AssociationinNashville, Tennessee, and spearheaded the effort to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum into which he was inducted in 1964.^[2]

He moved to Nashville in 1965 and began working for radio station WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, earning a lifetime membership in the latter in 1970.^[2]

In 1970, Ritter entered Tennessee's Republican primary election for United States Senate. Despite high name recognition, he lost the nomination to United States Representative Bill Brock, who then defeated the incumbent Senator Albert Gore, Sr. in the general election.

Ritter died of a heart attack in Nashville on January 2, 1974, at age 68. He was survived by his wife and two sons. Ritter's son, John, became famous as an actor, playing Jack Tripper on the ABC sitcom Three's Company (1977–1984). In 2003, John died, at the age of 54, of an aortic dissection. Because John was initially diagnosed as having a heart attack, and because aortic dissection is known to be hereditary, the family now believes that Tex died of an aortic dissection rather than a heart attack.^[8]

For his contribution to the recording industry, Ritter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard.^[9] In 1980, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame^[10] at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage MuseuminOklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was a member of the charter group of inductees into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, in 1998.^[11]

In 1986, Ritter was honored posthumously with a Golden Boot Award for his work in Western films.^[12]

Ritter can still be heard as the voice of Big Al, an audio-animatronic bear, at Disney theme park attraction Country Bear Jamboree at the Magic KingdomatWalt Disney World, and Tokyo DisneylandinUrayasu, Chiba, Japan, and formerly at DisneylandinAnaheim, California.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tex Ritter.

• Tex RitteratIMDb
• Tex Ritter at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tex Ritter at The Old Corral (a reference guide for B-Westerns)
• Tex Ritter at the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Tex Ritter Museum – Carthage, Texas
• Tex Ritter / Edward Finney Collection at the Autry Museum of the American West