Brian Damage
11-11-2010, 11:48 AM
Butch Patrick, who played Eddie on 'The Munsters,' checked into a New Jersey rehab facility looking for help with a 40-year addiction to alcohol, cocaine and marijuana, TMZ reports.
Patrick, 57, has had a long, albeit off-the-radar, career in showbiz since the 1960s creature sitcom. Patrick's rep tells TMZ he hopes to "get a grip on his addiction and educate himself."
Patrick's family has reportedly pushed him to get help for three decades. His rep adds, "We have thought he could possibly be a product of the child star problem ... and are thankful he will take control of his fate."
In 1989, PEOPLE ran a story titled "Once a Little Munster, Butch Patrick Grew Up to Battle Scarier Demons." The profile now reads almost prophetically: "Ever since 'The Munsters,' Patrick -- who later acquired a felony drug conviction -- has felt sure that another monster success was just around the corner."
Patrick, 35 at the time, told PEOPLE: "I've been trying to hit home runs all my life and striking out. Now I'm going to try to hit a few singles and doubles." He recalled buying drugs for the first time at age 16 and battling the problem ever since. "I never did heroin, never put a needle in my arm, but I did a lot of coke and psychedelics. Occasionally I'd be the middleman and get the stuff for free. I'm basically a hustler."
Butch professed to many years with "no ambition," and told PEOPLE he had quit his addictions in 1987. "I straightened my own life out in my own time," he said. "Maybe I should have gone to rehab, but I didn't. A little man inside me said it was time to get my life in order."
News arrived just this summer that Patrick would marry his self-described "biggest fan," retired pharmacist Donna McCall, with whom he corresponded as a child. "When Mr. Patrick starred on 'The Munsters,' he and Ms. McCall would write back and forth to each other. Donna, it turns out, was a big fan and had a massive crush on the youngest Munster," Yahoo reported.
Patrick spoke fondly of 'The Munsters' in an interview with the LA Times just before Halloween this year: "It's really never gone off the radar. It's just pure, simple fun. It's from an era where people watched talking horses, genies in a bottle and monsters who live next door. It was all about escapism, as opposed to all the reality TV that's on now."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/11/butch-patrick-rehab-eddie-munster/
Patrick, 57, has had a long, albeit off-the-radar, career in showbiz since the 1960s creature sitcom. Patrick's rep tells TMZ he hopes to "get a grip on his addiction and educate himself."
Patrick's family has reportedly pushed him to get help for three decades. His rep adds, "We have thought he could possibly be a product of the child star problem ... and are thankful he will take control of his fate."
In 1989, PEOPLE ran a story titled "Once a Little Munster, Butch Patrick Grew Up to Battle Scarier Demons." The profile now reads almost prophetically: "Ever since 'The Munsters,' Patrick -- who later acquired a felony drug conviction -- has felt sure that another monster success was just around the corner."
Patrick, 35 at the time, told PEOPLE: "I've been trying to hit home runs all my life and striking out. Now I'm going to try to hit a few singles and doubles." He recalled buying drugs for the first time at age 16 and battling the problem ever since. "I never did heroin, never put a needle in my arm, but I did a lot of coke and psychedelics. Occasionally I'd be the middleman and get the stuff for free. I'm basically a hustler."
Butch professed to many years with "no ambition," and told PEOPLE he had quit his addictions in 1987. "I straightened my own life out in my own time," he said. "Maybe I should have gone to rehab, but I didn't. A little man inside me said it was time to get my life in order."
News arrived just this summer that Patrick would marry his self-described "biggest fan," retired pharmacist Donna McCall, with whom he corresponded as a child. "When Mr. Patrick starred on 'The Munsters,' he and Ms. McCall would write back and forth to each other. Donna, it turns out, was a big fan and had a massive crush on the youngest Munster," Yahoo reported.
Patrick spoke fondly of 'The Munsters' in an interview with the LA Times just before Halloween this year: "It's really never gone off the radar. It's just pure, simple fun. It's from an era where people watched talking horses, genies in a bottle and monsters who live next door. It was all about escapism, as opposed to all the reality TV that's on now."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/11/11/butch-patrick-rehab-eddie-munster/