Career
Ritchie is best recalled today for the silent comedy shorts he made between 1914 and 1920 for director/producer Henry Lehrman"s L-KO Kompany and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit Variations on Ritchie"s "tramp" and "drunk" personae - which Ritchie had developed before and during his Karno yearswere introduced to film audiences by Charlie Chaplin in such shorts as the Lehrman-directed Kid Auto Races at Venice (7 February 1914) and Mabel"s Strange Predicament (9 February 1914). Ritchie, who - due to a series of on-set injuries, spent his final years relatively inactivesuccumbed to stomach cancer in the summer of 1921.
Massa, Steve (30 April 2013).
Lame Brains and Lunatics: The Good, The Bad, And The Forgotten of Silent Comedy (pp 55-68). BearManor Media.