'Eight is enough' actor Dick Van Patten dies at 86

New York

DICK Van Patten, the cheerful, round-faced actor best known for his role as the firm if harried suburban father at the centre of the hit television series Eight Is Enough, died on Tuesday in Santa Monica, California. He was 86.

The cause was complications of diabetes, said a spokesman, Jeffrey Ballard.

Eight Is Enough, based on a memoir by Tom Braden, starred Van Patten as Tom Bradford, the patriarch of a family of eight children. It was among the top-rated shows on television during its four-year run on ABC, from 1977 to 1981.

Some of the show's young actors, including Willie Aames and Grant Goodeve, became stars, but its serene centre…