Gary Coleman’s untimely death revives rumors of ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ curse

If you grew up in the 80s, it’s likely that Diff’rent Strokes is one of the television shows you remember most prominently from the era.

The show was high profile and popular, but in intervening years, the sad fate of the three kids starring on Diff’rent Strokes has overtaken its legacy. Years before Gary Coleman died at the age of 42, the seemingly very bad luck of the show’s stars captivated pop culture and fueled rumors of a curse. The LA Times brought the rumor story up again today in commentary on Coleman’s death:

But the legacy of the series, which debuted on NBC in 1978, has been clouded by the accounts of bad fortune and tragedy that befell most of the cast members after the show ended in 1986. Friday’s death of Coleman days after he suffered a brain hemorrhage once again cast light on what many fans of the show call “The Diff’rent Strokes curse.”

If you’re too young to remember or unfamiliar with the later lives of the child stars, Dana Plato died at the age of 36 from an intentional overdose of pills. Prior to her death, she had been arrested for stealing a doctor’s prescription pad and robbing a video store, and she appeared in a softcore pornography film. (Plato’s son Tyler later committed suicide, found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound last month.) Todd Bridges also had skirmishes with the law and struggled with addiction, but he seems to have finally overcome his struggles. Gary Coleman had notorious difficulties, too, struggling financially and later taking work as a security guard to make ends meet. Coleman died today at the age of 42, succumbing to injuries sustained in a fall on Wednesday.

However, fellow show stars Conrad Bain and Charlotte Rae seemed to have fared just fine since Diff’rent Strokes wrapped. Bain, who is now 87, commented to TMZ earlier that he was praying for Coleman. Rae said similar to the gossip blog, learning of his hospitalization shortly before he passed away. While it may seem at first glance that the stars of the show suffered unnecessarily harsh fates, it’s more likely that the immense pressures of fame weighed far too heavily on the younger cast members of Diff’rent Strokes.