LOS ANGELES -- Lani O'Grady, 46, who played Mary, the strong, self-confident eldest daughter on the television series "Eight Is Enough," was found dead Sept. 25 in her home in Valencia, Calif.
Authorities say Ms. O'Grady apparently died of natural causes. The coroner's office said a post-mortem examination is pending.
Ms. O'Grady, a talent agent at the time of her death, was the daughter of Mary Grady, one of Hollywood's top children's agents. Her brother was Don Grady, one of the original Mousketeers and a co-star of the 1960s TV comedy "My Three Sons."
It was while visiting her brother on the "My Three Sons" set when she was 6 that Ms. O'Grady began thinking of following in his footsteps.
Aware of the emotional toll on child actors, Mary Grady never pushed her daughter into acting. But when Ms. O'Grady was 13, her mother finally gave in to her persistent requests to be sent on an audition.
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After reading a two-line bit for "High Chaparral," she won the lead role in the episode. Ms. O'Grady never looked back, working constantly as a teenager.
Born Lanita Rose Agrati in Walnut Grove, Calif., she changed her name to Lani O'Grady after landing her role in "Eight Is Enough," a comedy-drama that starred Dick Van Patten as the newspaper columnist father of eight children. The series ran from 1977 to 1981.
In a 1994 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ms. O'Grady said she had long suffered from severe panic attacks, which led her to abuse prescription drugs and alcohol for more than a decade.
Although she began experiencing the attacks at 18, she said, she was not diagnosed with a panic disorder until she was 21. Over the years, she said, she saw 32 doctors, most of whom prescribed various tranquilizers.
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After "Eight Is Enough," Ms. O'Grady said, she was in and out of five rehabilitation clinics. The lowest point in her long struggle with panic attacks, she said, came in 1993, when her abuse of prescription drugs and alcohol led to memory blackouts.
In 1994, she began being treated for a brain chemical imbalance. The treatment, she said at the time, made all the difference in the world. In 1998, however, she checked herself into a hospital to detoxify from a prescription drug addiction.
Although many child stars bitterly complain about the drawbacks of growing up in show business, Ms. O'Grady was not one of them.
"I have a real hard time with people who have been successful in this business as young children . . . and [as adults] they are no longer wanted by Hollywood -- and, yeah, Hollywood is not a user-friendly place.
"But rather than accepting responsibility for their life, it's easier to say, 'The business is the reason I'm so messed up today.' I hate that."
O'Grady went on her first audition, for "High Chapparal," at age 13.
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