Adam Rich, the former child star who played Nicholas Bradford in ABC’sEight Is Enough, has died at age 54,TMZ reports.
Rich appeared on the show throughout its five-season run from 1977 to 1981, where he portrayed the pageboy-haired son of Tom Bradford (Dick Van Patten).
According to TMZ andCNN, Rich died Saturday in his Los Angeles home, with a law enforcement source telling the outlet that his death was not foul play. Reps for Rich did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
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Rich’s manager shared a statement about the late actor via Twitter, saying in part, “If you knew Adam, you just loved the guy. And oh, the stories he could tell.”
While playing the youngest son in the series — and before taking on several other roles through the late ’70s and ’80s — the actorappeared on the coverof the Dec. 3, 1979 issue of PEOPLE magazine with costars Van Patten, Grant Goodeve, and Willie Aames. The story detailed the road to the show’s success, from the death of the original series' mother, Diana Hyland, just four episodes intoEight is Enough, toMark Hamillexiting his role after a car accident before the premiere. After tragedy and casting changes, the show managed to become a hit on ABC, with 112 episodes in total aired.
Van Patten,who died in 2015, called the then-child star “the most intelligent person on the show and very sweet, careful of people’s feelings, which is rare in children.”
“Dick’s like your father, only he’s not bossy,” Rich told PEOPLE as a kid of his costar. “He laughs at all my jokes.”
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After the success of the show, Rich went on to appear in several other series, including ABC’sCode Redin 1981 and 1983’sDungeons & Dragons, in which he voiced teenage wizard Presto, the Magician.
In the late ’80s, he appeared in both television filmsEight Is Enough: A Family ReunionandAn Eight Is Enough Wedding. During the first special, released in 1987, Rich was 18 years old andtold PEOPLEhe got “a lot less cute” in the years since filming the hit show. At the time, he moved into his own apartment in Sherman Oaks, where Van Patten was his landlord, in an effort to further pursue acting.
source: people.com
