RIP, Gary Coleman
Image by Getty Images North America via @daylife
Gary Coleman has died. He was 42. He suffered an intracranial hemorrhage after a fall in Utah earlier this week and had been on life support since Thursday.
The back alleyways of Hollywood — not to mention the back pages of the gossip rags — are filled with tales of child stars whose adult lives go off the rails. Unable to accept a diminished career once they grow out of the cuteness that made them famous, the punishing life of an out-of-work actor or perhaps unprepared to control a child-like id that was once given everything it asked for — some child stars grow up — or into — wreckages of adult lives, scarred by drugs, criminality, or some combination of the two. And we’re not surprised when their story ends with an untimely obituary and an eventual coroner’s report.
But that wasn’t Gary Coleman. The diminutive, apple-cheeked child star who played Arnold Jackson on NBC’s massively popular “Diff’rent Strokes” wasn’t a drug addict. There aren’t any tales of debauchery, no grainy footage of him robbing a convenience store, no inquest report into a death caused by a life of misadventure.
Gary Coleman just grew up. He accepted it. Unfortunately, the rest of us didn’t. He tried to make the best of it, but we wouldn’t let him.
Born in 1968, Coleman suffered from a chronic kidney disease that attacked his auto-immune system — it necessitated daily dialysis treatments and two kidney transplants during his life — and the medications he took stunted his growth at an early age. At a perpetual 4′ 8″, Coleman always looked younger than he was, but had the delivery and comic timing of a more mature actor. The combination — he looked like a child and sassed like an adult — brought him fame and fortune as a child star during the surprisingly long run of “Diff’rent Strokes” (1978 to 1986). But as Coleman became an adult (he was 18 when the show ended), work dried up. People only loved Gary Coleman the child.
He sued his parents and former manager in 1989 for misappropriating the vast fortune he’d earned as a minor — and he won, but it wasn’t enough. He filed for bankruptcy in 1999. At different points, he supported himself with work as a mall security guard in Los Angeles and a video arcade manager.
Throughout the ’90s and ’00s, Coleman popped up every now and then in a sitcom or a TV movie. Sometimes he played himself. Sometimes he played a character — but even when he did, he was just playing himself — or a parody of the unfortunate turns his life had taken. Being “Gary Coleman” was the only work he could get. Audiences would laugh when he showed up, but we didn’t laugh with him anymore; we laughed at him — at what he once was and what he didn’t become and how he looked and how his life had fallen apart. He played along, I assume, because he was getting paid.
He certainly played along in 2003, when an alternative newspaper suggested — and then supported — his candidacy for governor of California in the free-for-all recall election. It started as a joke — and people treated it that way — but Coleman saw it as an opportunity. He told The New York Times:
I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson… I’m someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more.
But we didn’t. We all wanted Gary Coleman, the chubby-cheeked kid who tossed out zingers and comebacks on TV. We wanted to hear him say “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” over and over and over again. What’s it like when the world won’t accept you as you are, but only as you once were?
It’s the wrong kind of attention, and the evidence tells us Coleman didn’t like it. He hit a woman in 1998 and was charged with assault when, as he told it, he refused her an autograph and she began to make fun of him and his career. And in 2008, after marrying and moving to Utah, Coleman and his wife argued with a man in a bowling alley who tried to take Coleman’s picture. Coleman said he tried to drive away and accidentally hit the man — the man said Coleman tried to run him over. He pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and reckless driving and settled a civil suit out of court.
By this point, anger had taken over Coleman. Arguments with his wife resulted in a handful of arrests for disorderly conduct and domestic violence.
Unlike other child stars whose celebrity lives fall off a cliff, Coleman didn’t die from drugs or wild living or an out-of-control ego. He just grew up — an unfunny fact of life we never fully accepted.
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Watching Gary Coleman grow up was a little painful for anyone with a heart. We all knew he appeared younger than he really was, and would remain short of stature for the rest of his life. A 4’8” black man? Anybody with half a brain knew he’d be nowhere as soon as the sitcom folded.
It’s like seeing a spectacular beauty in middle age, trying to cling to girlish charms. I much prefer to see the courageous women who embrace their age and make the most of it. Gena Rowlands comes to mind.
As I look back on the ponderings above….Anyone with a heart….half a brain….courage….somehow appropriate tribute to Gary; doing Wizard of Oz-isms for someone who couldn’t find his way back ‘home’ into the hearts of America.
The most hurtful part was seeing him play roles as himself, his TV character, or parodies of his real life troubles. Hard to keep your dignity when you need a paycheck. His parents and managers had stolen all his money and Hollywood for an adult Gary stole his dignity. Watching the butchers of “entertainment TV” chew him up and spit him out was the most pathetic at all. TMZ behave like soulless zombies.
It’s sad, really, and I never could tolerate to see Gary Coleman playing himself as a mockery. It’s simple exploitation, and it shows humanity at its worst. I wonder if TMZ stands for too many zombies.
I am suspicious about the fall head injury. domestic violence anger issues mistreatment by his environment, bonding, etc. vs his fall by seizure. I will watch if any inquiry pronounces natural causes. i wonder if GC donated his body parts to the Harvard’s Brain Trust/Bank? curiouser & curiouser. Wish someone keeps sniffing.
He was effectively the real-life “I didn’t do it” boy. Shame, that.
The only thing we love more than comedy is tragedy. But for all his handicaps he still turned out better than his co-stars. One reduced to a penniless junkie. The other a grubby pron star O.D’d on prescription drugs leaving behind a trail of petty crime convictions.
Todd Bridges Knew Gary Coleman’s “Junk”
Before meeting with Todd Bridges my initial feeling was, why on earth would I want to meet with that guy?
Well, the first thing I learned about Todd Bridges is that he is no relation to the Oscar winner, Jeff Bridges.
All jokes aside, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how nice and well-spoken Todd actually is.
Bridges has had a roller coaster life. Success and heartache.
Todd Bridges, the man who played Willis Jackson on the TV series “Diff’rent Strokes,” offered his own insight into the trials of being a childhood star and shared his story of drug addiction.
He seems very humble, much unlike his fellow “Diff’rent Strokes” co-star Gary Coleman. Todd acts like a guy just happy to be alive, and for good reason.
As an actor of a hit show, the young Bridges was pulling in $30,000 a week. But by age 22 he was out of work. Then Bridges said he began selling drugs.
Specifically, he battled addictions to crystal meth and cocaine. “I hated myself,” said the 44-year-old Bridges. “I hated the way I looked in the mirror.
Bridges’ recent autobiography is “Killing Willis: From Diff’rent Strokes to the Mean Streets to the Life I Always Wanted.”
Tom: I see you have a photo there from your wrestling days, are you still wrestling?
Bridges: “Yeah, I gave it up there for a while and now I’m getting back into it.”
Tom: You did some boxing, too, any chance of doing that again?
Bridges: “No. But I did kick Vanilla Ice’s ass.” (Laughing)
Tom: How did you come with the idea for the new book?
Bridges: “The media wouldn’t tell the real story so I wanted to put it in a book.”
Tom: “You should have named it ” Willis gets a second chance”
Bridges: “I hear that!”
Tom: Do you still talk to Gary Coleman?
Bridges: “No, I don’t talk to him anymore”.
Tom: Did you see his newest movie
Bridges: Oh yeah? “What’s the name of it?”
Tom: You know The one that shows his junk, “Midgets vs Mascots”
Bridges: “You know that ain’t real right?” ( laughing )
Tom: How would you know? ( laughing )
Bridges: Have you seen it? “You know that thing is fake!” (laughing)
Tom: Are you sure?
Bridges: “C’mon man Gary ain’t got nothing like that, I mean that thing is touchin the ground!”( both laughing)
Gary Coleman responded: Whatyoutalkinbouttodd
Tom: So what’s next for you? Do you have anything else in the works?
Bridges: “Just my book and my TV show other than that I’m just taking it easy.”
Bridges: “The plan is to kick back with my kids and enjoy time with them.”
Tom: I’m going to be on the Fox Morning show next week and the producer thought it would be fun if you did a call in.
Well it will be aired here about 8:30 eastern time so that would be 5:30 by you.
Bridges: “5:30?? There ain’t no way I’m getting up at 5:30, sorry man.” (laughing)
Tom: Do you blame Hollywood for what happened to you?
Bridges: “Can’t blame Hollywood, it’s not Hollywood — those are choices that I made. The media always wants to blame Hollywood: ‘Oh, it’s because they threw you away,’ and all this and that, but I can’t blame Hollywood. … I made some stupid choices; I made some horrible mistakes that cost me.”
Tom: Well, I better let you run. I was great meeting you.
Bridges: You too man, Take care.
By: Tom Murro
Celebritymagnet.com
Tags: Tom Murro, Todd Bridges, celebrity,gossip, books,Gary Coleman,celebritymagnet.com
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