14:38Classic TV · 1977Three's Company Cast Then and Now
Episode: Three's Company (1977): Cast Then & Now 2026 — Who's Still Alive After 49 Years?
From Hollywood Legends Era · 14 min ·
About the Three's Company Cast Then and Now
The Three's Company cast then and now is the story of one small Santa Monica apartment and the many people who passed through its door. The ABC sitcom premiered on March 15, 1977, and ran for eight seasons and 172 episodes, ending on September 18, 1984.
Adapted from the British comedy Man About the House, it had a simple setup: a young man shares an apartment with two young women, and the landlord is told a white lie to keep the peace.
Of the twelve people remembered in this episode, seven have passed away. Here is what is known about each of them.
Who Were the Landlords of Three's Company?
Norman Fell as Stanley Roper
To millions of viewers, Norman Fell was simply Mr. Roper, the grumbling landlord with the knowing look. Born in Philadelphia in 1924, he served in World War II as a tail gunner on a B-25 bomber in the Army Air Forces.
Before Three's Company, he played the suspicious landlord in The Graduate (1967) and appeared in Catch-22 (1970). After three seasons, he and Audra Lindley left for their own spin-off, The Ropers, which ran from 1979 to 1980.
Norman Fell died on December 14, 1998, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He was 74. The cause was multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.
Audra Lindley as Helen Roper
Audra Lindley was born in Los Angeles on September 24, 1918, to parents who were both actors. She was 58 when Three's Company premiered.
As Helen Roper, she gave the show some of its sharpest lines. In the 1972 film The Heartbreak Kid, she played Cybill Shepherd's mother. More than twenty years later, she played Shepherd's mother again on the sitcom Cybill. It was her final role.
Audra Lindley died on October 16, 1997, in Los Angeles, of complications from leukemia. She was 79.
Don Knotts as Ralph Furley
When the Ropers moved on in 1979, Don Knotts arrived as the new landlord, Ralph Furley. By then, he already had five Emmy Awards for playing deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.
Born in Morgantown, West Virginia, on July 21, 1924, he began as a young ventriloquist at church and school events, then worked in radio before joining Steve Allen's television show in 1956.
In 1998, Morgantown renamed part of University Avenue as Don Knotts Boulevard. He died on February 24, 2006, at age 81, from complications of pneumonia related to lung cancer. Andy Griffith told the Associated Press that Don was a small man, "but everything else about him was large."
Who Played the Roommates and Their Families?
Suzanne Somers as Chrissy Snow
Suzanne Somers was 30 when the show began, and her scatterbrained Chrissy quickly became a favorite. During the fifth season, a contract dispute over pay led to her role being reduced to short scenes, and she left the series.
She found a second act. She starred as Carol Foster Lambert on Step by Step from 1991 to 1998 and built a large business in fitness and wellness products, beginning with the ThighMaster.
Suzanne Somers died at home in Palm Springs on October 15, 2023, one day before her 77th birthday, with her husband Alan Hamel and her son Bruce at her side. Her family's statement said they had gathered to celebrate her birthday, and "instead, they will celebrate her extraordinary life."
Peter Mark Richman as Reverend Luther Snow
Peter Mark Richman, born in Philadelphia on April 16, 1927, was a licensed pharmacist before he joined New York's Actors Studio. William Wyler gave him his film debut in Friendly Persuasion (1956).
On Three's Company, he played Chrissy's father, the Reverend Luther Snow. He later played Andrew Laird on Dynasty and C.C. Capwell on Santa Barbara.
He died of natural causes at his home in Woodland Hills on January 14, 2021, at age 93. He had been married to his wife, Helen, since 1953.
Jenilee Harrison as Cindy Snow
Jenilee Harrison, born June 12, 1958, had been a Los Angeles Rams cheerleader from 1978 to 1980. She first appeared as Chrissy's clumsy cousin, Cindy Snow, in the episode "Chrissy's Cousin," which aired on December 16, 1980.
In the fall of 1981, Cindy moved out to attend UCLA, though the character still appeared into 1982. Harrison then played Jamie Ewing Barnes on Dallas from 1984 to 1986, and she left show business in 2002.
Priscilla Barnes as Terri Alden
Priscilla Barnes was born at Fort Dix, New Jersey. In 1981, she moved in as Terri Alden, a nurse, and stayed until the series ended.
At a 2017 cast reunion on Antenna TV, she recalled feeling like an outsider at first. She went on to play Della Churchill in the James Bond film Licence to Kill (1989), appeared in Mumford (1999), which also featured John Ritter's son Jason, and played Magda in 41 episodes of Jane the Virgin.
Who Else Lived Around Jack, Janet and Chrissy?
Richard Kline as Larry Dallas
Richard Kline, born in New York City on April 29, 1944, played Jack's girl-chasing best friend, Larry Dallas, with his open collar and used-car charm. Off screen, he was a stage actor with a Master of Fine Arts from Northwestern University.
After the show, he made his Broadway debut in the musical City of Angels in 1989 and appeared in Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights. He is 82 and still working. He is scheduled to narrate a 50th anniversary reading of the Three's Company pilot in New York on November 2, 2026, for the John Ritter Foundation.
Jordan Charney as Frank Angelino
Jordan Charney, born in Brooklyn on April 1, 1937, played Frank Angelino, Jack's boss at the restaurant, from 1981 to 1983.
He spent years on daytime television, including Another World, and his films include Network (1976) and Ghostbusters (1984). In 1982, he became artistic director of the Actors Alley theater company in Los Angeles.
Ann Wedgeworth as Lana Shields
Ann Wedgeworth, born in Abilene, Texas, on January 21, 1934, won the 1978 Tony Award for Neil Simon's Chapter Two. On Three's Company, she played Lana Shields, an older woman with her eyes on Jack, for nine episodes.
She appeared in Scarecrow and Bang the Drum Slowly in 1973, and later in Steel Magnolias (1989) and four seasons on Evening Shade. She died on November 16, 2017, in North Bergen, New Jersey, after a long illness. She was 83.
John Ritter as Jack Tripper
John Ritter, born September 17, 1948, was the son of singing cowboy Tex Ritter. He was student body president at Hollywood High and studied theater at the University of Southern California. He won the Emmy for the role in 1984.
Nearly twenty years later, he had another hit as the father on ABC's 8 Simple Rules. On September 11, 2003, he became ill on the set and died that night at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, of an aortic dissection. He was 54. Television Academy chairman Bryce Zabel said that even in flawed characters, Ritter's "warmth and humanity always came through."
His widow, Amy Yasbeck, helped found the John Ritter Foundation for Aortic Health, which raises awareness of the condition that took his life.
Joyce DeWitt as Janet Wood
Joyce DeWitt, born in Wheeling, West Virginia, on April 23, 1949, played sensible Janet Wood from the first season to the last. She is the last surviving original star of the series.
She and Suzanne Somers had not seen or spoken to each other for 31 years when they reunited on Somers' online talk show in 2012, where Somers apologized and the two made peace. In September 2026, DeWitt attended the John Ritter Foundation's gala in Hollywood and described her bond with Ritter as something that "happens maybe once in a lifetime." She is 77.
Why Three's Company Still Makes Us Smile
The jokes were broad and the plots were simple, but the heart of Three's Company was friendship. Three people who were not family looked out for one another, and the people around them became family too.
That bond outlasted the show. Old disagreements were set aside, and today Joyce DeWitt and Richard Kline still gather in John Ritter's name.
Which Three's Company character always made you laugh the most, and who did you watch it with?
Sources and Further Reading
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