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Dick Van Patten

About this Artist

Few actors have had as versatile and rich a background as DICK VAN PATTEN. With a remarkable career including more than 600 radio shows, 27 Broadway plays, 24 feature films, and 7 television series, Van Patten is still perhaps best known for his starring role as Tom Bradford in the long-running hit series Eight Is Enough. In recent years, audience interest prompted him to reprise that role in the top-rated specials Eight Is Enough: A Family Reunion and An Eight Is Enough Wedding, both on NBC.

A one-time child actor billed as Dickie Van Patten, he has appeared in a continuous series of Broadway shows starting at the age of seven. They include three Pulitzer Prize-winners, On Borrowed Time, The Skin of Our Teeth (starring Tallulah Bankhead and Fredric March), and Mister Roberts, where he played Ensign Pulver opposite Henry Fonda. Dick Van Patten recently starred in a Chicago company of Show Boat for Hal Prince.

In 1949, at the beginning of television, Van Patten made his transition from stage to television in the award-winning I Remember Mama series, portraying Peggy Wood’s son Nels, for eight years. Since then, he has made numerous guest-starring appearances on almost every major television series, and has starred in such series as The Partners, Arnie, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, and When Things Were Rotten.

He has appeared in over 20 feature films, including Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Van Patten has been honored with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.