Former child star of the sitcom “Eight is enough!” who made the heyday of the ABC chain between 1977 and 1981, in which he played the youngest child of the Bradford family, Adam Rich died this Saturday at the age of 54.
Adam Rich, former child star who played the youngest child of the siblings in the hit sitcom Eight, that’s enough! broadcast on ABC between 1977 and 1981, died this Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 54 years old. The causes of his death have not been revealed.
Appreciated for his naivety at the start of this series which will last the time of 5 seasons and 114 episodes, his character, Nicholas Bradford, will still win many fans as the series progresses. After the end of the series, Adam Rich was able to bounce back, still on TV, in the (very) ephemeral series CodeRed (1981-1982) which depicted the daily life of a fire brigade in Los Angeles.
Punctuated by a few appearances in various series such as Ricky or the good life, Alerte à Malibu or La Petite Merveille, the rest of his career was nevertheless difficult for him, apart from a long-term voice dubbing for the animated series derived from Dungeons & Dragons entitled The Smile of the Dragon, in which he lent his voice to a magician character named Presto.
In the wake of the announcement of the death of Adam Rich, his former artistic agent, Todd Stein, also recalls how much the aftermath Eight is enough! was difficult for him to negotiate: “I represented Adam for a while in the 1990s. He wanted to work but had trouble getting the roles, which discouraged him” he wrote on his Twitter account.
The actor has had a lot of setbacks due to his drug use. In 1991, then aged 22, he was arrested after breaking the window of a pharmacy to steal drugs, and suspected theft of goods from other stores, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
After several years of probation, he plunged again in 2002 where he was arrested for driving under a prohibited substance, when his vehicle almost hit a police car head-on. His last role dates back to 2003, although it is a cameo, in the film Dickie Roberts: ex-child star.
The story of the film also resonates like a painful echo of its own chaotic journey: the story of a child star of a Sitcom from the 70s, who became a parking attendant and ready to do anything to get his career back on track.