Kaley Cuoco is still emotional recalling the real-life death of her onscreendad, 18 years later.
Recalling her work with the late John Ritter, who died in 2003 after a medical emergency on the set of their ABC sitcom, “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter,” Cuoco said the actor was ” like no one I’ve ever met” during ABC’s docuseries “Superstar,” which on Wednesday aired an episode about Ritter’s career and legacy.
“The most generous man, the most fun,” she added.
“8 Simple Rules,” which ran from 2002 to 2005, starred Ritter as patriarch Paul Hennessy opposite Cuoco as Bridget, the eponymous teenage daughter. The actress recalled her first table read, to which she showed up wearing a spaghetti strap top and shorts that were “way too short.”
“In comes John, and I go, ‘Hi, I’m playing your daughter,’ ” she said. “He goes, ‘Hold on’ and he takes his jacket and puts it over me. He goes, ‘Never dress like that again.’ And right then, he was my dad.”
Cuoco added: “He treated me like his own daughter. He treated all of us kids like that. It was pretty incredible.”
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In September 2003, the cast was filming an episode with Ritter’s friend, Henry Winkler, serving as a guest star. Cuoco described Ritter as a “kid in the candy store: All of his best friends were there on the set.”
“It was a wild week,” she said. “And then Thursday came.”
Ritter noticed he was sweating a lot and needed…
