Henry Winkler has decades of Hollywood memorabilia in his home, but one of the objects he has kept does not look particularly valuable. It is a partially crushed water bottle from the set of 8 Simple Rules.
The bottle has been in Winkler’s possession since September 11, 2003, when his longtime friend John Ritter became ill while rehearsing the ABC sitcom and died hours later. During a new home tour with Graham Bensinger, Winkler picked it up and explained why it was still among his belongings.
“I took the water bottle and never quite opened it,” Winkler said. More than two decades later, the bottle remains scrunched into an unusual shape, with the 8 Simple Rules logo still visible on it.
For Winkler, it is connected to what began as an ordinary day working with a close friend. He had come to the Disney lot for a guest role opposite Ritter, and by late that night he was receiving a phone call telling him that Ritter was gone.
Winkler Was Rehearsing With Ritter Hours Before His Death
Winkler had been invited to guest star in the fourth episode of 8 Simple Rules Season 2, titled “The Hot List.” He was playing the managing editor who worked above Ritter’s character, Paul Hennessy, and the old friends spent much of September 11 rehearsing scenes together.
Nothing about their afternoon initially suggested to Winkler that it would be their last. He has repeatedly recalled Ritter saying at around 4 p.m. that he was not feeling well and needed to get some water. Winkler responded that he would use the break to memorize his lines so he would not “stink up the place.”
They went in different directions, and Winkler never saw him again. “That was literally the last time I saw him,” he later recalled. Around 11 that night, Winkler received a call at home saying, “We lost John,” a sentence he initially could not process.
In the new Bensinger interview, Winkler recalled repeatedly asking what the caller meant. Hours earlier he had been enjoying an afternoon with his friend, expecting to return and finish their episode together.
Winkler and Ritter Had Been Friends for More Than 20 Years
Their friendship went back to the height of their respective sitcom careers. Winkler became one of ABC’s biggest stars as Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli on Happy Days, while Ritter became a network fixture as Jack Tripper on Three’s Company.
Winkler has said they first properly connected at an ABC anniversary event after he accidentally moved his chair into Ritter’s. From there, the two developed a friendship that continued through work on screen and stage.
Winkler directed Ritter in the 1986 television movie A Smoky Mountain Christmas, and in 2000 they appeared together on Broadway in Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party. They spent nine months performing the play together before Ritter later invited Winkler onto his new sitcom.
Immediately after Ritter’s death, Winkler told the Los Angeles Times that their final afternoon had been filled with joking, rehearsing and laughter. “The last second I saw him on the set yesterday, we were joking,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be great.’”
Ritter Died Hours After Leaving the Set
Ritter became increasingly ill during rehearsals and was taken to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, located across the street from the studio in Burbank. He died that night at 54.
The John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health says Ritter experienced a type A aortic dissection, a tear involving the body’s main artery. He was initially treated for a presumed heart attack before doctors identified the dissection as his condition.
His widow, Amy Yasbeck, established the foundation weeks later to fund research and improve awareness of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection. The organization has continued that work for more than two decades.
Production of “The Hot List” was never completed with Winkler’s guest appearance. ABC instead aired the three Season 2 episodes Ritter had finished before his death and later incorporated Paul Hennessy’s death into the series as the remaining characters dealt with the loss.
The Water Bottle Never Left Winkler’s Collection
Winkler’s home is filled with objects connected to a career spanning more than five decades, and his tour with Bensinger included photographs, scripts and memorabilia tied to people and productions he has known along the way.
The bottle from 8 Simple Rules occupies a different place in that collection. Winkler did not preserve it because it was a prop or because he expected it to acquire value. He simply took it from the set associated with the last afternoon he spent with Ritter and never got rid of it.
Winkler has continued talking about his friend in the years since, including while testifying during the 2008 civil trial surrounding Ritter’s medical care. On the witness stand, he remembered Ritter as someone who “kept everyone laughing” and described him as a consummate professional.
Twenty-three years after their unfinished day on 8 Simple Rules, the small bottle remains in Winkler’s home, still unopened and carrying the show’s logo.