Natchez24web

Ritchie Montgomery
& Debbie Willson SUSAN MARQUEZ
Ritchie Montgomery was born just 16 miles
north of Natchez in Fayette, Mississippi, but he was
destined to go to Hollywood. “I left this area as a
25-year-old full of hopes and dreams.” He spent
the next thirty years in Los Angeles.
“I figured out that I was funny while attending
Sewanee Military Academy in Tennessee.”
Ritchie recalls his art teacher, Colonel Moore,
who recognized that Ritchie had a creative mind.
“He encouraged me to take art classes, but I
couldn’t paint or sculpt at all.” But Moore took an
interest in Ritchie and they talked a lot.
“Colonel Moore suggested we put together
some skits to entertain the school. I did parodies
of the alcoholic bus driver who managed to get us
to sporting events and back to the school without
killing us all.” The school’s janitor, who was often
the butt of jokes and bullying by other students
became a friend, of sorts, to Ritchie. “We talked a
lot and he was always kind. He and his family lived
in a cave. I told him I was going to do a skit about
him and asked him to come. He declined, but asked
if I would wear his boots.”
Ritchie opened and closed the show with his
skits, and when he looked into the audience at the
end, he saw the janitor. “He said it was one of the
most exciting moments of his life. I knew then that my
life had changed. I understood the power of the
performing arts and the effect I could have on people.”
Ritchie attended Ole Miss before transferring to
the University of Southern Mississippi where he
earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.
Before heading to Los Angeles, Ritchie managed
to get his Screen Actors Guild card due to his role in
Freedom Road, filmed in Natchez in 1977. “I was a
production assistant, and they recruited me to play a
Union soldier. I was also the assistant to Mohammed
Ali in that film and we became friends.”
48 2024 VISIT NATCHEZ