For many of you that are fans of this series, as I was when a teenager, you may be interested to know that Trent Lehman who played Butch hung himself on January 17, 1982. A sad end to a promising talent for sure. Somehow the series seems to have been cursed -- lead actor Richard Long (Professor Everett) died of a heart attack in 1974 at the relatively young age of 47, but the only stars that seem to have had post-Nanny careers are of course Juliet Mills, and the other two siblings in the show, Kim Richards and Davide Doremus. Doremus had a recurring role for a few seasons on "The Waltons", if I recall.

David Doremus also had a guest part as a football player on James at 15 once, which co-starred his fellow Nanny castmate Kim Richards as James' younger sister.

Just a word on Trent.

As a kid I watched "Nanny And The Professor" and related to the character "Butch" because he was around my age. I'll never forget the poetic lilt he had in his voice when he delivered his lines. That was one thing that made him unique.

I was shocked to hear that he had committed suicide. I learned about it 10 years after it happened, thanks to former child actors like Jay North speaking out and Paul Petersen, founder of "A Minor Consideration":


AMC (http://www.minorcon.org/)

According to my information Trent committed suicide at the age of 20 in January of 1982 by hanging himself on the schoolyard fence at the elementary school that he attended when he was a child actor. He had moved to Colorado with his family in 1977, after "Nanny And The Professor" ended in 1972, and then returned to Los Angeles as a young adult hoping to revive his acting career and reconnect with former friends, against the wishes of his family in Colorado.

Sadly, it didn't work out :(

R.I.P.

Trent Lawson Lehman 1961 - 1982

We'll never forget you...Butch :)

Jeff

Trent also played Mary Ellen's boyfriend in a few ep's of The Waltons.

Actually I didn't learn of this until 1999 when I got online and started doing a lot of whatever-happened-to research. Trent was one of the first I looked up as I began researching everyone who ever appeared on my favorite series, Emergency! which both Trent and Kim Richards did. Trent was the one with whom I identified as he was exactly my age.

As I understand, a bunch of bad things happened in a short time. His parents had split up, so he didn't have a home to return to. He broke up with a girlfriend and had a substantial amount of money stolen, then hanged himself, so he was going through rough times anyway with the additional burden of a child actor having been very much wanted at one time and as much if not more unwanted just a few years later.

Rusty Hamer, who appeared on the long-running series Make Room for Daddy, shot himself years later. A relative said all his bitter complaints were directed at his treatment after the series ended--not about anything that happened to him while acting.

Trent also played Mary Ellen's boyfriend in a few ep's of The Waltons.

He was also in the "Brushfire" episode of Emergency!

Sad, sad story. I saw one of those "where are they now?" episodes of ET - both Juliet Mills and Kim Richards were interviewed. They stated they were both devastated and cried at the news. What a sad end for such a young man. :rip:

It was David Doremus who appeared on The Waltons, and thanks for the great pictures from Emergency! I am enjoying collecting the DVDs.