Jason Ritter is the 29-year old son of the late John Ritter.  Like his dad, he’s an actor.

Sometimes I cop a little bit of an attitude at second (and third!) generation actors.  Many of them (Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estavez, Bridget Fonda, Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, Jared Harris, Joely Richardson, Colin Hanks, even Gwynneth Paltrow) don’t even come close to equaling the talent and charm of their famous parents.

However, there’s another group (Jamie Lee Curtis, Timothy Hutton, Jane Fonda, Amanda Plummer,  Beau and Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas, Sean Astin, Geraldine Chaplin, Laura Dern, and others) who make a believer out of me by holding their own as performers.

After seeing him in the films Happy Endings and now The Education of Charlie Banks, I am happy to add young Mr. Ritter to this list.

In the movie (which was made in 2007 but only now released), Ritter plays a toxic, violent but charismatic bully.  He’s rather great in the role, and the fact that his 5′ 9″ frame does not make him a natural to play a physically imposing character makes his performance all the more impressive.

Ritter plays the kind of creep who makes you believe he’d gather followers around him like the Pied Piper even though he’s capable of committing acts of great destruction. 

I look forward to seeing what Ritter does next.

PS:  It’s interesting to note that in “Three’s Company, ” his father played a straight man pretending to be gay; in Happy Endings Jason plays a gay man pretending to be straight.