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Amy Yasbeck (born September 12, 1962) is an American film and television actress.

Early life and career

Yasbeck was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a child, Yasbeck was featured on the package art for the Betty Crocker Easy-Bake Oven. Years later, in 2000, she was presented with a new Easy-Bake Oven on the show I've Got a Secret for which she was a regular panel member.

She spent her elementary, middle and high school years at two different Catholic schools: Summit Country Day School and Ursuline Academy. She is noted for her long red hair and is of Irish and Lebanese heritage. After losing both of her parents, her father from a heart attack and her mother from emphysema, Yasbeck moved to New York.

Amy Yasbeck has had starring roles in the sitcoms Wings, Alright Already, and Life on a Stick and in movies such as The Mask, Pretty Woman, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. She also played the part of Madison the mermaid in the Disney TV movie Splash, Too in 1988. (The role Madison was originated by Daryl Hannah in the movie Splash.)

Personal life

Yasbeck is the widow of actor John Ritter, with whom she had worked in several projects. She first met him at director Dennis Dugan's house during a read-through of their 1990 movie Problem Child. According to Yasbeck, Ritter forced her to eat a bagel and cream cheese because he thought she was too thin. He also thought she was too young to play his wife in the movie (Ritter was almost 15 years Yasbeck's senior).

Yasbeck and Ritter also starred together in Problem Child 2 (1991) and guest-starred together in an episode of The Cosby Show which aired in 1991. The couple married in 1999 and had a daughter, Stella, in 1998.

On September 11, 2003, Ritter died after collapsing on the set of his sitcom, 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. The cause of death was an aortic dissection stemming from a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect. The date of his death was their daughter's fifth birthday, the day before Yasbeck's forty-first birthday, and six days before their wedding anniversary and his own birthday. Yasbeck eventually filed a lawsuit [1] against the hospital where Ritter died. She and her stepchildren, from Ritter's previous marriage to Nancy Morgan, claimed that the doctors at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank, California misdiagnosed the heart condition that cost Ritter his life. The suit was settled out of court in March 2006.[2] Yasbeck gave her blessing to the continuation of the sitcom, 8 Simple Rules, where it was ultimately decided that Katey Sagal's character would assume the lead role as a widow (much like Yasbeck in real life). Although the show continued without Ritter, it did survive for almost two full seasons after his death, an unprecedented feat for a sitcom losing its star character to death.

Filmography

• Life on a Stick (2005) (TV series)
• House Blend (2002) (TV series)
• Dead Husbands (1998) (TV)
• The Odd Couple II (1998)
• Denial (1998)
• Alright Already (1997) (TV series)
• Sweet Dreams (1996) (TV)
• Bloodhounds II (1996) (TV)
• Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
• Home for the Holidays (1995)
• Wings (1990) (TV series) (1994-1997)
• The Mask (1994)
• Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)
• The Nutt House (1992)
• Problem Child 2 (1991)
• Dillinger (1991) (TV)
• Problem Child (1990)
• Poochinski (1990) (TV)
• Pretty Woman (1990)
• Generations (1989) (TV series)
• Little White Lies (1989) (TV)
• Trenchcoat in Paradise (1989) (TV)
• Splash, Too (1988) (TV)
• China Beach (1988) (TV) (uncredited)
• House II: The Second Story (1987)
• Days of Our Lives (1965) (TV series) (1986-1987)

External links

• A Tribute to Amy Yasbeck (fansite)

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