Harry Ritz

 Harry Ritz, born Harry Joachim (May 22, 1907 – March 29, 1986)

He was the brother to fellow comedians, (and future comedy partners), Al and Jimmy Ritz. He also had another brother named George who would become the future manager to the Ritz Brothers and had a sister named Gertrude Soll. By 1925, and after a full career on Broadway, he and brothers Al and Jimmy decided to team up and form a song/dance-and-comedy act called the Ritz Brothers. Al chose the name "Ritz" after seeing it on the side of a laundry truck. The brothers would have Harry standing in the middle singing The Man in the Middle Is the Funny One, a song written for them. The other two brothers would then take to berating Harry for occupying that favored spot and, as they screamed their displeasure. Their comedy style was a tandem song and dance, as if they were one. By 1930 they were playing the Palace where the headliner was Frank Fay with his bride, Barbara Stanwyck. By 1934, they had done their first film together as a team, "Hotel Anchovy". They were appearing at the old Clover Club on Hollywood's Sunset Strip when Darryl F. Zanuck reportedly caught the act and signed them to a contract. (Al had appeared earlier in a silent film, The Avenging Trail in 1918.) The Ritz Brothers started their Hollywood film career with 20th Century Fox in 1936, starring with Alice Faye in Sing, Baby, Sing. Later they were in One in a Million with Sonja Henie, The Three Musketeers with Don Ameche, Kentucky Moonshine and The Goldwyn Follies. The brothers left Fox in 1940 and went with rival studio Universal. The brothers quit after filming the movie "Never a Dull Moment" in 1943 to concentrate on club dates. They had frequent acts in Las Vegas, and appeared on television in the 1950's.

The brothers performed together until Al's death in 1965, leaving Harry and Jimmy as a duo. The two brothers continued to perform on stage, television and movies. By the 1970's and 1980's, they had small roles in films such as Blazing Stewardesses (1975) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). Harry also appeared in a cameo in the 1976 Mel Brooks film Silent Movie. Ritz was married four times, and had seven children. In his last years, Ritz battled with cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. He died on March 29, 1986, age 78 from pneumonia. Ritz is interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.