Adam Rich, former 'Eight Is Enough' child star, dies at 54

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One-time child actor Adam Rich, who starred in the 1970s TV show Eight is Enough," walks out of a sheriff's station after posting bail in City of Industry, Calif., in 2002.

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Adam Rich, the child actor with a pageboy mop-top who charmed TV audiences as "America's little brother" on Eight Is Enough, has died. He was 54.

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Rich died Saturday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, said Lt. Aimee Earl of the Los Angeles County Medical-Examiner Coroner's office. The cause of death was under investigation but was not considered to be suspicious.

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Rich had a limited acting career after starring at age 8 as Nicholas Bradford, the youngest of eight children, on the ABC hit dramedy that ran from from 1977 to 1981.

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He had several run-ins with police related to drugs and alcohol — and sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.

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Rich suffered from a type of depression that defied treatment and he had tried to erase the stigma of talking about mental illness, said publicist Danny Deraney.

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He unsuccessfully tried experimental cures over the years.

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