R.I.P. Gary Coleman, The Star Of Diff’rent Strokes Dies At Age 42

(February 8, 1968 – May 28, 2010)

Former child star Gary Coleman, who rose to fame as the wisecracking youngster Arnold Jackson on the TV sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” but grew up to grapple with a troubled adulthood, has died. He was 42.

Coleman died of a brain hemorrhage at a Provo, Utah hospital, Friday afternoon, according to a hospital spokeswoman. The actor fell ill at his Santaquin, Utah, home Wednesday evening and was rushed by ambulance to a hospital, Coleman’s spokesman had said in a statement earlier Friday.

He was then taken to another hospital — Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo — later Wednesday night.

In the late ’70s and early ’80s, Coleman was one of television’s brightest stars, the personality around which NBC’s “Strokes” — the story of two inner-city children who are taken in by a wealthy businessman, his daughter and their housekeeper — was built.

His natural charm and way with a line — the frequently uttered “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”, directed at his older brother (played by Todd Bridges), became a catchphrase –helped make the show a breakout hit, a mainstay of the NBC schedule from 1978 to 1985 (and on ABC for a year afterward).

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