Actor Mark Ritts died of kidney cancer on 7 December 2009. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on 16 June 1946, Ritts was best known for playing Lester the Rat on the 1990s’ television science show Beakman’s World (1992-98, but reruns still air). Ritts also played Herb, a puppet penguin who introduced the show.
Ritts was the son of puppeteers, and would occasionally perform with his parents. When he auditioned for Beakman’s World, he thought it was to be a puppeteer manipulating a rat character. But when he was told the producers decided they’d rather have somebody wearing a giant rat suit, Ritts jumped at the chance. The quirkiness of the show was such that his rat costume didn’t have arms, and he was never specifically referred to as a rat, but instead as a guy in a rat suit. The New York Times has a nice review of his work on the show in this obituary.
Ritts was a graduate of Harvard and a film producer. He is survived by two sons, one daughter, and his second wife, actress Teresa Parente (his first marriage, to Nina Daniel, ended in divorce).