Tex Ritter

Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was an American country music singer and actor. He was the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John Ritter, grandsons Jason Ritter and Tyler Ritter). He is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life Woodward Maurice Ritter was born on January 12, 1905, in Murvaul, Texas, to Martha Elizabeth (née Matthews) and James Everett Ritter. He grew up on his family's farm in Panola County, Texas, and attended grade school in Carthage, Texas. He attended South Park High School in Beaumont, Texas. After graduating with honors, he entered the University of Texas at Austin in 1922 a 30-minute program of mostly cowboy songs. That same year, he moved to New York City and landed a job in the men's chorus of the Broadway show The New Moon (1928). He appeared as cowboy Cord Elam in the Broadway production Green Grow the Lilacs (1931), and Mother Lode (1934).

In 1932, he starred in New York City's first broadcast Western, The Lone Star Rangers on WOR, where he sang and told tales of the Old West. Ritter wrote and starred in Cowboy Tom's Roundup on WINS in 1933, a daily children's cowboy program aired over two other East Coast stations for three years. He also performed on the radio show WHN Barndance and sang on NBC Radio shows; and appeared in several radio dramas, including CBS's Bobby Benson's Adventures.

Movies In 1936, Ritter moved to Los Angeles. His motion picture debut was in Song of the Gringo (1936) for Grand National Pictures.

In 1952 Ritter recorded "The Ballad of High Noon" for the film High Noon. He performed the track at the first televised Academy Awards ceremony in 1953, and it received an Oscar for Best Song that year.

Television When television began to compete with movies for American audiences, Ritter began to make appearances on the new medium following 71 straight movie appearances. In 1953, he began performing on Town Hall Party on radio and television in Los Angeles. In 1957, he co-hosted Ranch Party, a syndicated version of the show. He made his national TV debut in 1955 on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee and was one of five rotating hosts for its 1961 NBC-TV spin-off, Five Star Jubilee.

Later work Ritter became one of the founding members of the Country Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee, and spearheaded the effort to build the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum into which he was inducted in 1964.

He moved to Nashville in 1965 and began working for radio station WSM and the Grand Ole Opry, earning a lifetime membership in the latter in 1970.

Legacy For his contribution to the recording industry, Ritter has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6631 Hollywood Boulevard. In 1980, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was a member of the charter group of inductees into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, in 1998.

In 1986, Ritter was honored posthumously with a Golden Boot Award for his work in Western films.

Ritter can still be heard as the voice of Big Al, an audio-animatronic bear, at Disney theme park attraction Country Bear Jamboree at Tokyo Disneyland in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan; and formerly at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Selected filmography

Song of the Gringo (1936) – Tex Headin' for the Rio Grande (1936) – Tex Saunders Arizona Days (1937) – Tex Malinson Trouble in Texas (1937) – Tex Masters Hittin' the Trail (1937) – Tex Randall Sing, Cowboy, Sing (1937) – Tex Archer Riders of the Rockies (1937) – Tex Rand The Mystery of the Hooded Horsemen (1937) – Tex Martin Tex Rides with the Boy Scouts (1937) – Tex Collins Frontier Town (1938) – Tex Lansing, alias Tex Rawlins Rollin' Plains (1938) – Tex Lawrence The Utah Trail (1938) – Tex Stewart, posing as the Pecos Kid Starlight Over Texas (1938) – Tex Newman Where the Buffalo Roam (1938) – Tex Houston Song of the Buckaroo (1938) – Texas Dan Sundown on the Prairie (1939) – Tex Rollin' Westward (1939) – Tex Man from Texas (1939) – Tex Allen Down the Wyoming Trail (1939) – Tex Yancey Riders of the Frontier (1939) – Tex Lowery Westbound Stage (1939) – Tex Wallace Rhythm of the Rio Grande (1940) – Tex Regan Pals of the Silver Sage (1940) – Tex Wright The Cowboy from Sundown (1940) – Sheriff Tex Rockett The Golden Trail (1940) – Tex Roberts Rainbow Over the Range (1940) – Tex Reed Roll Wagons Roll (1940) – Tex Masters Arizona Frontier (1940) – Tex Take Me Back to Oklahoma (1940) – Tex Lawton Rolling Home to Texas (1940) – Tex Reed Ridin' the Cherokee Trail (1941) – Ranger Lt. Tex Ritter The Pioneers (1941) – Tex King of Dodge City (1941) – Tex Rawlings Roaring Frontiers (1941) – Tex Martin (listed as Tex Rawlings) The Lone Star Vigilantes (1942) – Tex Martin Bullets for Bandits (1942) – Sheriff Tex Martin North of the Rockies (1942) – Tex Martin The Devil's Trail (1942) – Marshal Tex Martin Prairie Gunsmoke (1942) – Tex Terrell Vengeance of the West (1942) – California Ranger Captain Tex Lake Deep in the Heart of Texas (1942) – Brent Gordon Little Joe, the Wrangler (1942) – Sheriff Bob Brewster The Old Chisholm Trail (1942) – Montana Smith Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground (1943) – Bob Courtney Cheyenne Roundup (1943) – Steve Rawlins Raiders of San Joaquin (1943) – Gil Blake The Lone Star Trail (1943) – Fargo Steele Frontier Badmen (1943) – Jerry Kimball (cattle buyer) Arizona Trail (1943) – Johnnie Trent Marshal of Gunsmoke (1944) – Marshal Ward Bailey Cowboy Canteen (1944) – Tex Coulter Oklahoma Raiders (1944) – Steve Nolan Gangsters of the Frontier (1944) – Tex Haines Dead or Alive (1944) – Tex Haines aka Idaho Kid The Whispering Skull (1944) – Tex Haines Marked for Murder (1945) – Tex Haines Enemy of the Law (1945) – Tex Haines Three in the Saddle (1945) – Tex Haines Frontier Fugitives (1945) – Texas Ranger Tex Haines Flaming Bullets (1945) – Texas Ranger Tex Haines Holiday Rhythm (1950) – Tex Ritter Buffalo Bill in Tomahawk Territory (1952) – stock footage from "Where the Buffalo Roam" (uncredited, archive footage) The Marshal's Daughter (1953) – Background Singer (singing voice) Wichita (1955) – Singer Apache Ambush (1955) – Traeger The First Bad Man (1955) – Narrator Down Liberty Road (1956) – George Trooper Hook (1957) – Title Song Singer (voice) Ranch Party (1958, TV Series – regular) Tom and Jerry (1965, TV Series) – alternate host Nashville Rebel (1966) – Himself The Girl from Tobacco Row (1966) – Preacher Bolton What Am I Bid? (1967) – Tex Ritter The Marshal of Windy Hollow (1972) – Windy Hollow mayor Sing a Country Song (1973) – Ryan (final film role)

Discography

Albums Year Album US Country Label 1948 "Children's Songs and Stories" (4 p's 78's in a cover with pictures) Capitol 1954 Cowboy Favorites (4 p's 78's in a cover with pictures) 1958 Songs from the Western Screen Psalms 1960 Blood on the Saddle 1961 Lincoln Hymns Hillbilly Heaven 1962 Stan Kenton! Tex Ritter! 1963 Border Affair 1965 Friendly Voice 1966 The Best of Tex Ritter 38 1967 Sweet Land of Liberty 43 Just Beyond the Moon 18 1968 Bump Tiddil Dee Bum Bum! 38Tennessee Blues (Label: Hilltop Records) Wild West 1969 Chuck Wagon Days 1970 Green Green Valley 1972 Super Country Legendary 1973 An American Legend 7 1974 Fall Away 44 1976 Comin' After Jinny

Singles Year Single Chart Positions Album US Country US 1944 "I'm Wastin' My Tears on You" 1 11 singles only "There's a New Moon Over My Shoulder" 2 21 1945 "Jealous Heart" 2 "You Two-Timed Me One Time Too Often" 1 1946 "You Will Have To Pay" 1 "Christmas Carols by the Old Corral" 2 "Long Time Gone" 5 "When You Leave, Don't Slam the Door" 3 "Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?" 3 1948 "Rye Whiskey" 9 "The Deck of Cards" 10 "Pecos Bill" (w/ Andy Parker & The Plainsmen) 15 "Rock and Rye" 5 1950 "Daddy's Last Letter" 6 1952 "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" 12 1956 "The Wayward Wind" 28 1961 "I Dreamed of a Hill-Billy Heaven" 5 20 Hillbilly Heaven 1966 "The Men in My Little Girl's Life" 50 Just Beyond the Moon 1967 "Just Beyond the Moon" 13 "A Working Man's Prayer" 59 single only 1968 "Texas" 69 Wild West 1969 "A Funny Thing Happened (On the Way to Miami)" 53 singles only "Growin' Up" 39 1970 "Green Green Valley" 57 Green Green Valley 1971 "Fall Away" 67 Fall Away 1972 "Comin' After Jinny" 67 Comin' After Jinny 1974 "The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)" 35 90 An American Legend