Gary Coleman Dies At 42

Gary Coleman, the centerpiece of the long-running 70s/80s sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, has died in a Provo, Utah hospital from an intracranial hemorrhage he suffered from a fall early this week. Coleman played 8-year-old Arnold Jackson in the hit series produced by Norman Lear, which debuted in 1978 and ran until 1986. His recurrent line, “Whachoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” became a standard catchphrase. But Coleman was never able to regain his stardom after Diff’rent Strokes faded away. The actor who had earned as much as $64,000 a week at the height of his success worked as a shopping mall security guard for a time in the 1990s and declared bankruptcy in 1999.

[via IMDB news]

photo credit: IMDB