It is true, many 1970's NBC executives owe their careers to the adorable child actor, who was named Gary Coleman. He had the power to draw a huge audience. People were drawn to his cuteness and the ability to think as an adult. He was extremely smart, unfortunately for him, his intelligence did not give him success when he became an adult. Sometimes life SUCKS.

He had adoptive parents who allegedly took his fortune. He won a million dollar settlement after suing his parents. He made up to $70,000 an episode and his trust fund had next-to-nothing when he reached 18 years of age.

The laws that supposedly keep a child actor's money in a trust fund, have far too many loopholes. The phrase "managers fees" can be used by parents who appoint themselves as "managers" and then proceed to siphon. 

As an adult, he wasn't cute anymore. He also had a chip on his shoulder, and to a degree, rightly so. He was constantly being kicked around either by Mother Nature with his kidney problems, or by his "loving" parents. He even sued a film producer who was going to use a quickie nude shot of Gary. It was an unplanned shot with an open robe. He supposedly did not give them permission and he sued. The producer had a contract that supposedly gave him complete control.

At the same time that he sued the movie producer, he had minor legal problems when he allegedly hit his wife. He needed bail, he arranged to end his lawsuit with the movie producer in exchange for bail money. Life constantly kicking you down. Granted, some of it was self imposed kicking. It was still a real bitch to have the weight of the world constantly pushing you down.

A lot of successful people are successful, because of who-they-know and not because of what-they-know. If Gary had made "deals" with the powers-that-be he might have overcome the cute child actor stigma. He might have been a successful actor as an adult. He did have the talent.

As a fellow Chicagoland person, I was quite proud of the little guy from Zion, Illinois. The first time that I met him, I told him where I was from. I said you probably don't know where it is. He replied that he did. He was a big fan of a hobby shop in the same town. He loved his hobby shops. I love antique toys. Two kindred spirits.

If you are interested, CNN has written a very nice and informative obituary. Click HERE .

Below is a TVLand interview with Gary Coleman's co-star Todd Bridges. Todd discuses that catch-phrase that everybody always wanted Gary Coleman to utter. By the way, if you ever wanted to get Gary mad, all you had to do was to ask him to say "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis? All of Gary's demons would surface, if somebody dared to ask that simple question.



The next video is a montage of "Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis" from many Diff'rent Strokes episodes. 




If you are interested, TV TOY MEMORIES has several autographed Gary Coleman items.

COLEMAN FOR GOVERNOR BUTTON 




SIGNED COLEMAN CRACKED MAGAZINE                                                       




SIGNED DIFFERENT STROKES COLORING BOOK  










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