Adam Rich, Former Kid Star of ‘Eight Is Enough,’ Dies at 54

Adam Wealthy, who turned a phenomenon together with his starring function because the youngest member of the Bradford household on TV’s “Eight Is Sufficient,” was discovered useless Saturday. He was simply 54 years previous.

TMZ studies the previous actor’s reason behind dying has not been revealed, however that somebody arrived at his dwelling to seek out him “lifeless.” A regulation enforcement supply asserted it doesn’t look like a case of foul play.

Wealthy had, lately, been lively on social media. On Twitter, he had over 18,000 followers, who have been handled to his present biz reminiscences, his pointed observations about fellow child-star icons like Ricky Schroder and Kirk Cameron, and his ideas on habit and psychological well being.

Wealthy had been largely absent from Twitter the previous few months. In September, he tweeted, “Human beings weren’t constructed to endure psychological sickness. The mere indisputable fact that some individuals think about these to be weak, or have an absence of will is completely laughable… as a result of it’s the full reverse! It’s takes a really, very sturdy individual… a warrior if you’ll… to battle such sicknesses.” He was writing in response to the suicide of Stephen “tWitch” Boss.

In December, he retweeted these sentiments with a cellphone quantity for the Suicide Disaster Line, writing on December 15, “The one factor these affected by a psychological sickness know how one can do is faux to be okay. Sufficient! The stigma is killing individuals. Be your self. Okay, or not okay, is the one solution to create change, & stomp the stigma! Heal your reality!”

Wealthy’s pinned tweet was a picture of himself with late film star Mickey Rooney. “Everybody used to say to me… ‘You’re the modern-day Mickey Rooney,'” he captioned it. “However when Mickey informed me that himself [mind blown emoji],… it meant a helluva lot extra to me!!! :)))”

Although happy with his accomplishments, Wealthy logged some critical points with the trimmings of fame, finally leaving performing after making an enormous splash within the ’70s.

“America’s little brother” was born October 12, 1968, rising up in L.A. After a few TV roles, together with his 1976 debut on “The Six Million Greenback Man,” and establishing himself as a high business pitchman, he was solid as Nicholas on “Eight Is Sufficient” at age 8. The present, which ran from 1977-1981, centered on a pair with eight youngsters, modeled after the life story of journalist Tom Braden.

Along with his exaggerated pageboy haircut, Wealthy turned a sensation and the present’s MVP, instantly showing in teen magazines regardless that he wasn’t a teen.

He made an look on “The Love Boat” (1979), within the Invoice Cosby movie “The Satan and Max Devlin” (1981), and in addition guested on “3-2-1 Contact” (1980), two episodes of “Fantasy Island” (1978 & 1982), and two episodes of “CHiPs” (1979 & 1982).

Publish-“Eight Is Sufficient,” he was a sequence common on “Code Pink” (1981-1982) and supplied a voice on the animated sequence “Dungeons & Dragons” (1983-1985). Together with showing on well-liked exhibits like “St. Elsewhere” (1986), “Silver Spoons” (1986), and “Small Surprise” (1986 & 1988), he reprised his function as Nicholas for the TV motion pictures “Eight Is Sufficient: A Household Reunion” (1987) and “An Eight Is Sufficient Marriage ceremony” (1989).

In 1986, on the top of the Nancy Reagan “Simply Say No” period, Wealthy participated within the video “Drug Free Youngsters: A Dad and mom’ Information,” through which stars together with Elliott Gould, Jane Alexander, Marla Gibbs and Melissa Gilbert role-played conditions in an effort to present households sources to assist hold their youngsters off medication.

In actual life, Wealthy battled habit from early on. He tried medication by 14, left college, practically ODed on Valium in 1989, and endured a humiliating arrest for making an attempt to burglarize a pharmacy. He was arrested in 2002 for a DUI and spoke about going by rehab quite a few occasions.

In mild of getting old out of his former picture and his private struggles, Wealthy labored far much less after the ’80s. He made one look on “Baywatch” in 1993, did restricted voice work, after which parodied himself within the movie “Dickie Roberts: Former Youngster Star” (2003) and on the sequence “Reel Comedy” (2003), his ultimate credit score.

Wealthy spoke at size about melancholy in an interview with Ringside Report Internet TV Channel in 2022, throughout which he mentioned his presence on social media and his mission in life. He stated, “Twitter is a motherf**king journey, that place — proper? I imply, it may be so poisonous… At one level, I used to be, like, entering into feuds with a number of the MAGA celebrities and I used to be, like, enduring all this hate and no matter, and I simply lastly, I used to be, ‘I do not wanna do this,’ and I finished following them, or no matter, and I used to be like, ‘What do I wanna actually do right here?’ And I form of simply discovered my function with speaking about my sickness as a result of I spotted how many individuals on the market have been additionally [affected by] the identical factor that have been on there… It will also be so constructive.”