Obituary: Lance Loud, 50; Eldest Son in Real-Life PBS Series

Lance Loud, the eldest son in a family whose conflicts were laid bare in a landmark 1973 public television documentary series, has died at age 50. Loud, a freelance journalist who lived in Echo Park, Calif., died Saturday morning at a hospice in Los Angeles of complications of hepatitis C, according to his sister, Delilah. Loud emerged as a protagonist in "An American Family," the controversial PBS series that was a progenitor of today's unscripted programming. The real-life soap opera examined the Louds of Santa Barbara, who allowed documentarians to trail them in their daily lives for seven months in 1971. Loud's avowal of his homosexuality made him a hero to the gay community, and he was a regular contributor to the Advocate, Interview and Details.

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