Adam Rich, who starred in the popular series "Eight Is Enough" has died. He was 54. Rich was found dead at his Los Angels home on Saturday, a family member confirmed, according to TMZ. No cause of death was given by his family. However, law enforcement sources told the publication that police visited Rich's home and found him dead.
Although no cause of death has been provided yet, police sources said that they don't believe any foul play was involved in Rich's untimely death. Rich shot to popularity after playing the youngest son in the ABC series "Eight Is Enough" but over time struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse.
Gone Too Soon
According to TMZ, when police reached Rich's Los Angeles home, they found him dead. He was first found lifeless by an unidentified person who came to his home. Rich, who was born on October 12, 1968, in Brooklyn, New York, became well-known in the 1970s after playing Nicholas Bradford on the television show "Eight Is Enough," the youngest son of the Bradford family.
The ABC program, which ran from 1977 to 1981, also starred Dick Van Patten, Lani O'Grady, Connie Needham, Grant Goodeve, and others.
According to an IMDB synopsis, the five seasons that the show had on the air were based on the idea of "a family with eight very independent children."
"I think he's why the show was a big success," Van Patten, who died in 2015, said of his former co-star in a 2011 interview with Stephen J. Abramson for the Television Academy Foundation.
"People loved him! [Fans] named a child Nicholas and everything because of him," he added. "He was cute, and he was a good actor. He was very natural."
After the episode, he also made appearances in the one-season drama Code Red and provided the voices for Dungeons And Dragons. He contributed to the 1997 movie The City.
Abrupt End to Career
Rich's career was destined to peak the talented actor decided to leave Hollywood and the entertainment business in the 1980s in order to live a more private life and avoid the spotlight. The 2003 comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" was one of the actor's final roles, where he played himself.
Rich was allegedly also involved in drug abuse, which resulted in his arrest in 1991 after he broke a drugstore window to steal narcotics, according to TV Line.
Dick Van Patten, who played his father Tom Bradford in the film Eight Is Enough, had bailed him out after he was arrested.
The next year, in 1992, the late actor checked himself into a drug rehabilitation program. According to CBS News, he was allegedly detained for a DUI in 2002 but refuted the allegations. He had said at the time, "I've been sober for 10 years."
Rich had smoked marijuana when he was just 14 years old and decided to leave high school when he was 17 years old.
According to The Mirror, the former child star was involved in a "death hoax" in 1996 that entailed the San Francisco magazine Might printing an article with Rich's approval that he had been murdered.
Other TV appearances by Rich include "Baywatch," "Code Red," "Dungeons & Dragons," "Small Wonder," and "St. Elsewhere."
