All About Bob Ross' Son Steve Ross

Bob Ross and his son, Steve Ross, share a passion for painting.

The late American painter and PBS star welcomed Steve with his first wife, Vivian Ridge, in 1966. And like his father, Steve is a gentle-natured and talented painter. However, he is unable to use his father's name or likeness — or most peculiarly, even his own name and likeness — to promote his own work.

Steve went into a reclusive state following his father's death from cancer in 1995, emerging later to fight a legal battle against Joan Kowalski, whose parents ultimately inherited the rights to Bob's work and likeness. Although he lost the case, Steve's fight was brought to light in 2021 when Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone produced a documentary about the lawsuit.

Here's everything to know about Bob Ross' son Steve Ross.

He began painting as a child

Bob and his first wife Vivian welcomed their son Steve on Aug. 1, 1966. Steve was the second of Bob's children, as the painter had previously fathered a child as a teenager.

Nearly three decades later, Steve made his debut on his father's show, The Joy Of Painting. In the episode Bob explained that his son is a painter just like him, and that he even sold his first painting at the age of 12.

He didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps

Despite Steve's enthusiasm for painting now, he resisted his father's attempts to pull him into the family business for years — a choice that he later told Vanity Fair he regrets.

Steve explained, "As kids, we all want to defy our parents and hang out with our friends. But as we get older, we begin to understand that our parents are pushing us to be greater than themselves because they seek the best for us. Like all young kids who know little about this world, I thought I knew everything as a teenager but had limited reference concerning what this world had to offer."

His dad's death sparked an intense legal battle

Bob died from lymphoma in 1995 when he was only 52 years old. His death came 10 years after the establishment of Bob Ross Inc. (BRI), which was founded as an equal partnership between Bob Ross, his second wife Jane, and a married couple by the names of Annette and Walt Kowalski. The Washington Post reported that Bob first met the Kowalskis after Annette took one of his painting classes in 1982.

When Bob's wife Jane died in 1992, her shares were distributed evenly amongst Bob, Annette and Walt, making the painter "a minority shareholder in a company that controlled his own image," per Newsweek.

Despite Bob leaving the rights to his name and likeness to two people (Steve and his half-brother Jimmie Cox) in his will and testament, the Kowalskis eventually gained full control over the company and all the rights to Bob's name, money and work after Bob's death by countering the action and creating a settlement with Cox.

As Steve recounted to The Daily Beast in 2021, the Kowalskis reportedly told him within days of his father's death that he had no rights to anything pertaining to Bob. He said, "Annette called me two days after my dad died, and she said, 'I want you to listen to me carefully … Any Bob Ross art products, anything related to art or painting … you can never ever make those, distribute those, create a business around those — nothing. But if you would like you can do anything not painting- or art-related that you want. You can do Bob Ross pickles, Bob Ross shoes, Bob Ross whatever. But you cannot put the Ross name on a painting - or art-related product, period — ever — for the rest of your life.' "

Over 20 years after Bob's death, Steve filed a lawsuit against the Kowalskis for ownership rights of Bob's name and likeness. Ultimately however, a judge ruled in favor of Bob Ross Inc. Steve hoped to appeal the decision and at the very least gain the right to use his name, but he told The Daily Beast that he didn't have the money to return to court.

He contributed to a 2021 documentary about his father

In 2021, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone produced a documentary about Steve's battle for his father's estate. The film, titled Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed, explores the legal battle in full.

As McCarthy explained to NPR, "Bob certainly wanted it to go to — most of the business — to his son. He left it to his son and his brother. And very quickly, that was kind of taken through litigation. and because at the time [Bob's son] Steve was so young, Bob thought, you know, let's have an adult still guiding him with where he's going to take this company. ... But he didn't get to take hold of it at all."

He began painting again in 2021

Steve returned to painting the same year the documentary was released, and McCarthy and Falcone joined Steve for a virtual painting class as part of the film's promotion. In one moving moment, Steve borrowed from his father and told the actress, "Well, every time I have a happy accident, I learn something from that. You start to discover that you almost want to have one, because it teaches you something that you didn't know before."