This will be a quick, non-political diary. Actor Gary Coleman, famous for his role as Arnold Jackson on "Diff'rent Strokes," has died.
Gary Coleman has died at 42, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Coleman had been hospitalized in Provo, Utah since Wednesday, May 26, after suffering what his family called "a serious medical problem."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Coleman had slipped into a coma and was on life support after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage.
He was pulled of life support Friday morning and later passed away. His wife Shannon Price and her father were at the hospital Friday.
Coleman was one of my favorite actors growing up. I always tuned into "Diff'rent Strokes" during the summer time when the local station would play reruns. The show was significant in that it was among the first to feature African-American actors as the stars (Coleman and Todd Bridges) and depict them in an interracial family. It also touched on a variety of social and cultural issues, such as bulimia, drug abuse, racism, and in one episode, sexual molestation. My favorite episode had to have been one from 1982 titled "Memories," in which the Drummonds play an old cassette tape that contains the recorded voice of Arnold's and Willis's deceased mother. While it has its playful and funny moments like most other episodes on the show, it's a poignant story in which Arnold revisits his grief over her death, and is struck by intense feelings of guilt that his mother struggled very hard to make ends meet but never had the economic advantages that his adopted family had. The final few minutes of this episode, where Arnold says goodbye to his mother at her grave site, is a small gem that really connects with the emotional hardship that comes with losing a parent at an early age.
Coleman also had quite a few cameos on a few of my other favorite TV shows during my adolescence, including a quite hilarious Christmas episode on "The Simpsons," where Coleman plays a security guard who helps destroy the Funzo doll, a toy which was built to destroy other Christmas toys. Coleman had a brief cameo on the final episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," where he and Conrad Bain (the man who played Mr. Drummond on "Diff'rent Strokes") came in to view the Banks household when it was up for sale -- with Coleman paraphrasing his famous line by saying to Will Smith, "What'chyou talkin' 'bout, Will?" Coleman also had a talent for voice acting, as he made a brief appearance in one of my favorite computer games way back when -- The Curse of Monkey Island.
One remarkable thing about Coleman's career was that he was able to keep working as an actor despite suffering from a kidney disease that hampered his growth, required two kidney transplants, and kept him on daily dialysis for the rest of his life. I think that's a tremendous credit to his work ethic and perseverance.
Fare thee well, Gary Coleman. You shall be missed.