Actor Dick Van Patten, perhaps best known as patriarch Tom Bradford on the '80s series Eight Is Enough, has died. He was 86.
The actor was born in Kew Gardens, New York, in 1928 and began his career as a child star and model. He made his Broadway debut when he was 7 years old in Tapestry in Gray. He went on to appear in nearly 30 more Broadway shows.
Van Patten made the jump to television with the role of Nels Hansen in I Remember Mama, which ran from 1949 to 1957.
He also went on to act in numerous other TV shows including The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Happy Days, The Love Boat and, more recently, Arrested Development, That '70s Show and Hot in Cleveland.
He also acted in various Disney films, along with three movies directed by Mel Brooks (High Anxiety, Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.) In 2009, Van Patten penned an autobiography, Eighty Is Not Enough, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
http://www.people.com/article/dick-v...s-topheadlines
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I loved him as the King of Druidia in Spaceballs.
Wonder how many people here actually know what I am talking about.