Former child star Gay Coleman passed away due to a brain hemorrhage.
In 1978, Gary Coleman burst into America's living rooms with his precocious performance as Arnold Jackson on the situation comedy "Diff'rent Strokes." His indignant catchphrase, "What you talkin' 'bout, Willis," was delivered by a chipmunk-cheeked boy who carried "Diff'rent Strokes" to high ratings, especially in its first few seasons.
But Mr. Coleman, who died Friday at age 42 after suffering a fall at his Santaquin, Utah, home, went on to become a poster child for the child-star gone astray. Finding only spotty work as an adult actor, he sued his parents, was arrested for assault, and squandered his savings.
Gossip columns couldn't get enough of his story line, and Mr. Coleman was always good for an outrageous quote, such as revealing that he had never been intimate with a woman before marrying at age 40. "I wasn't saving myself," he told Jet magazine in 2008.
Few seemed to notice that in interviews Mr. Coleman often stressed his desire to be taken seriously as an actor, to portray as he once put it, "a character with some teeth." But most of what came his way was retreads of his "Diff'rent Strokes" persona—short, comic, outrageous. Like many in Hollywood, his career became hostage to his notoriety.
"I have four strikes against me," he told People magazine in 1999. "I'm black, I'm short, I'm intelligent and I have a medical condition."
The medical condition helped make him famous. Adopted as an infant in Zion, Ill., he had a congenital kidney defect that led to two transplants by age 16. Drugs to combat rejection stunted his growth, and he had few friends. His mother, Edmonia Sue Coleman, a nurse, started "looking for things that might be fun for him."
She got him cast in a commercial for a Chicago bank, which brought him to the attention of sitcom maven Norman Lear. Mr. Lear at first cast Mr. Coleman as Stymie in a remake of "The Little Rascals," then in his own series. "Diff'rent Strokes" centered on two black brothers adopted by a wealthy white man. African-Americans injected into an otherwise white milieu was a popular television motif of the time, shared with shows such as "Webster," "Benson" and "Gimme a Break!"
Mr. Coleman was a sensation from the start in "Diff'rent Strokes." The Washington Post called him "a most unusual tot with a strikingly professional comic delivery." But in a follow-up feature, the Post depicted a temperamental star throwing tantrums on the set.
Getty Images
In a 1978 photo, Todd Bridges (left) and Gary Coleman flank Conrad Bain as they pose for a publicity photo for the NBC television series "Diff'rent Strokes."
Mr. Coleman seemed hardly to age over the life of the show, but when it ended in 1986 he was 18, and one of his first decisions as an adult was to sue his parents over their management of his salary. He eventually received a settlement, but his subsequent career couldn't support his free-spending ways. "I have lifestyle requirements," he explained in the 1999 People interview.
After declaring bankruptcy in 1999, he found work as a security guard at a mall and at a shop dealing in his favorite hobby, model railroading. In 2000, he announced that he would run for U.S. Senate against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, though he never appeared on the ballot. In 2003, he actually did run for governor, garnering 12,683 votes in an election that brought a different Arnold to the California statehouse.
When he married in 2009, one wag noted that it was to a woman "almost half his age and almost twice his height." But the marriage proved rocky, and earlier this year Mr. Coleman pleaded guilty to a charge of domestic violence. The couple had previously appeared on the television show "Divorce Court."
Mr. Coleman's last role was in the film "Midgets vs. Mascots," a self-proclaimed "shockumentary" pitting small people against sports mascots. Mr. Coleman later said he regretted participating in it.
"I don't like it when small people are made fun of," he told Britain's Daily Mail.
By STEPHEN MILLER
—Email remembrances@wsj.com
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