Remember child actor Willie Aames from "Charles in Charge" and "Eight Is Enough"? Star magazine is running an 'exclusive' story that the once popular actor tried to kill himself on Thanksgiving Day.
Aames, 48, tells the mag that, after all those years of working regularly on TV, he was forced to declare bankruptcy, had his car repossessed, and his wife of 22 years, Maylo, left him. And all of that happened in the same month!
He hadn't had an acting gig since appearing on the VH1 reality show 'Celebrity Fit Club' - which isn't much of a job to speak of. His predicament finally led him to attempt suicide.
"Most people [wind up in a psychiatric ward] because they'd either lost a job, a family member or relocated," Willie says a doctor told him after his suicide try. "I was there for of all those."
Willie says he left Kansas where he had his home all these years and moved to LA. "I stole a bottle of Jack Daniel's from the guy I was renting the room from. I'd been sober for 20 years when I took that first drink. I was also taking antidepressants and anti-anxiety pills. It got so bad, I put a knife to my throat and cut myself in six places. The police came, put me in handcuffs and whisked me away. I was completely devastated... I kept asking, 'What did I do wrong?'"
He spent some time in a California psychiatric ward, but is now out and attempting to start over as a furniture builder.
He tells Star, "I hope I can inspire other people with my experiences."
