Mark Ritts
| Mark Ritts | |
|---|---|
Mark Ritts
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| Born |
June 16, 1946 West Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S |
| Died | December 7, 2009 (aged 63) La Cañada Flintridge, California, U.S |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Actor, puppeteer, television producer and director, and author |
| Known for | president of Mark Ritts Productions, Inc. |
| Notable work | The Real Adventures of Sherlock Jones and Proctor Watson, The Pink Panther Show, Starstuff |
Mark Ritts (June 16, 1946 – December 7, 2009) was an American actor, puppeteer, television producer and director, and author. Ritts also produced and directed many independent videos and television spots as president of Mark Ritts Productions, Inc., for clients around the world.
Ritts was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in English literature. Being the son of noted puppeteers Paul and Mary Ritts, he pursued a sideline in puppetry, starring in PBS's The Real Adventures of Sherlock Jones and Proctor Watson and NBC's The Pink Panther Show, among many others. In the 1980s he was the puppeteer for the Philadelphia-area produced Starstuff.
Throughout the 1990s, Ritts was the voice and manipulator of Kino, the Emmy Award-winning puppet co-host of the PBS series Storytime, as well as one of the show's writers.
From 1992 to 1998, he participated on CBS's Beakman's World. In it, Ritts starred as Lester, a disgruntled actor (with a bad agent) in a rat suit who reluctantly helps Beakman with his experiments and trades barbs with Josie, Liza and Phoebe. The character was originally conceived as a puppet character, but at the last minute, the show's producers decided he would be a costumed actor. Ritts also operated the Herb penguin puppet, with the voice provided by Alan Barzman. The program has been televised in nearly 90 countries around the world, and is seen in syndication throughout the United States.
After moving to California from the East Coast in 1994, Mark wrote and produced a Barney the Dinosaur special for Fox, as well as a one-hour documentary on microbiology called Creators of the Future, which debuted in prime time on PBS in 1999.
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