VICTOR PERILLO: There are certain performers that are given to us,
to change our lives,
to make us happy.
And I think that Gary Coleman was one of them.
Stand up so Arnie-poo can knock you down.
(BOTH SNARLING)
TODD BRIDGES: Name me another child actor that was like him.
The kid was a true star.
Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?
BRIDGES: Unfortunately, all of that got snatched from poor Gary.
MAN: Why do so many child stars end up broke or broken?
Gary felt completely abandoned by the people who were closest to him.
Whether it was his parents or former business people.
DREW RYCE: He'd earned over $18 million as an actor...
and most of the money was going to people that weren't Gary.
ANNA GRAY: It really devastated him.
He didn't trust people anymore.
FEMALE REPORTER: Former child actor Gary Coleman faces assault charges.
It's little wonder that Gary spent so much time escaping reality.
He liked outer space because it was just a way of hoping
and dreaming about that better future that Gar wanted to live in.
My prayer was that he would meet somebody that loved him.
I love you.
Their relationship was tumultuous. Raging, yelling and demeaning.
SHANNON PRICE: I slapped him a couple of times.
I mean, nothing major, nothing like red flag.
Former child star, Gary Coleman died in a Utah hospital on Friday
after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.
I think everybody felt that the death of Gary Coleman was suspicious.
INTERVIEWER: You said, "I've had a lot of people sit there and say,
"'Yeah, she pushed him.'"
I would never hurt my husband. Ever.
DION MIAL: I really wanted some answers.
Why did his life have to end this way?
GARY COLEMAN: Celebrity's always a burden.
You're stuck with it for life.
You're gonna die a celebrity.
How do you like all the shade and shit I'm throwing at people?
(CHUCKLES)
I don't like to be ugly. But like, for this documentary,
this is probably the last that I can actually speak truth.
And you know, because I've had a lot to absorb over the years.
I was in bed.
And Gary was already downstairs.
And to me it sounded like pans that hit the floor.
I got out of bed and I went downstairs and there he was laying down...
on the floor...
with blood around his head.
I did not want to intervene with where all the blood was
because I knew help was coming.
I mean, blood doesn't really freak me out. It was just the amount of it.
I met Gary while he was filming the movie Church Ball,
and It was here behind us.
So I was waiting for, you know, the person in charge
for the extras, the director, whatever, and the door opened,
and it was Gary.
He's like, "You're too cute to be here. You should go home."
And I was like, "Oh. No, I'm just trying to see what's going on here."
I wanted to be an extra possibly.
And he was like, "If anyone says anything, say Gary Coleman sent you,"
and he let me in.
Guys, beers on me!
PRICE: I just sat up on the bleachers and he worked his way up
and then asked for my number.
I didn't think that he was going to call me at all.
And I was really shocked to hear the voicemail the next day.
What's the worst that could happen?
He actually brought me Olive Garden takeout,
which was really sweet.
I was like, "Okay, is this too good to be true, or is this real?"
I actually went back with him to his hotel that he was staying in Provo.
It was really cool. We just started talking and watched TV
or played a couple of video games.
It was basically just get-to-know-you kind of a thing.
I honestly didn't know who he was at all. I never sawDiff'rent Strokes.
And he started to tell me about his life
and everything that had happened.
And I mean, it's pretty rough.
INTERVIEWER: Are you okay to take the gum out?
-Or I can stick it behind my ear. -(INTERVIEWER LAUGHS)
(CHUCKLES)
SUE: Gary was born in 1968.
He was always an entertainer.
Even as a youngster.
We were shopping for school clothes
and they were doing like a fashion show,
and they were showing all the children's fashions.
And he was like...
"I can do that?"
I wrote a letter to the coordinator of the program
if she allowed little boys to model clothes.
And that Fall, I was modelling clothes on a little runway.
The manager of the mall saw a lot of the shows
and said, "That kid has talent. He should have an agent.'"
And he gave my parents a card to an agent in Chicago.
PERILLO: Gary's parents brought him into the agency.
He was only about eight years old, seven, actually.
And he wore a three-piece suit...
and had a high-pitched voice.
I collected bears, and he was knocking them off my shelf.
He had a great laugh.
And I knew that he was a tremendous talent.
GARY: The thing that really started the wheel rolling really fast
is the Harris Bank commercial.
Well, it's that time of the year when you can get a Hubert doll
at the Harris Bank.
Just open a savings account with $200 or more.
Or add $200 dollars to a savings account you already have.
Huby, the Huby doll...
Oh, my God, where did you get this? This is amazing.
It's not a bear, but it's all right.
You can never have too many Hubert dolls 'cause...
(CHUCKLES) you can never save too much money!
PERILLO: We made the Norman Lear producers aware of that commercial.
My name is Norman Lear.
Norman Lear was a big shot producer back in the 1970s.
And he was sending a scout around
and when Gary got to the audition, he was there for three hours
and he was reading with everybody.
The casting director said to me, "You know, he's a superb talent.
"He's got a tremendous timing."
And insisted that Lear see him.
(WILLIE SPEAKING)
EVE BRANDSTEIN: I was told to come up and meet this young man
who came bouncing out of his office and was
just a ball of energy and funny and adorable.
(GOOD TIMESTHEME MUSIC PLAYING)
He was put under contract immediately. And he was doing appearances
because we were beginning to build him.
Hey, look here, Mama.
Let me tell you something.
We're gonna settle this thing right here and now.
It like hit the roof. "Who is this kid?"
Chicago's answer to the neutron bomb.
At your service.
Hello, totem pole.
Everybody wanted to see Gary Coleman.
Gary, I'd like you to meet Miss Florida Evans.
Hey, Flo!
GARY: I thought, "Hey, this is a whole new adventure.
"This is cool. This is fun. And wait a minute,
"I get paid for this?" That kind of thing.
Never in my wildest dreams had I ever thought
it could get bigger than that.
(DIFF'RENT STROKES THEME MUSIC PLAYING)
BRANDSTEIN: I was told they had a script for a show calledDiff'rent Strokes.
And they asked Conrad Bain to be the father of these two young kids
that were orphans that he took in.
Ah-ha! You're here.
Welcome, gentlemen.
How about that, Willis?
Downtown two minutes and already we're gentlemen.
Come in, come in.
BRIDGES: Oops, shoot, sorry.
Sorry.
My clumsy feet, get in the way.
All right.
I got clumsy feet, so.
The very first time that I met Gary,
I was like, "This ain't no little kid."
(CHUCKLES) "This is not a little kid."
Because he was so smart.
He was so ingenious and just funny.
Be careful of my goldfish. His name is Abraham
I've never seen a black goldfish before.
That's okay. He never saw a rich white man before either.
He was cute and he played games.
He joked with everybody. He'd always hide stuff from people.
And then he would always come in my room and steal my combs
because he was like, "That hurts. That hurts." I was like, "Well,
"it's going to hurt worse if you don't sit still."
We happened to be in my garage, which is one of the storage spaces
that I I have for a lot of Gary's memorabilia,
that Gary collected throughout his life and career.
I've got photos.
We have awards.
This is Gary's...
venerable...
show jacket from Diff'rent Strokes.
Can you believe how small he was?
It takes me back for sure.
No question.
My mother needed to get to set to audit one of the teachers.
She suggested that I come along because she heard there was this new
sensational kid named Gary Coleman that she was very eager to meet.
And I accompanied her to the set.
He was a mere 10 years old and I was 14 years old.
And we became true childhood friends.
I knew upon the first take, something was different.
I had never, ever seen a kid that was so dynamic.
There was a meteor that had landed unlike anything I had ever seen before
in the constellation of child stars.
PHILIP: Everything's gonna be okay, honey.
Arnold and Willis will come and tell me what it's all about.
Here they come now.
-Hi, guys. -ARNOLD: Hi, Dad. Hi Julie.
We are in stage 17 where Diff'rent Strokes was shot.
How do you do? I'm happy Willis.
And I'm delirious Arnold.
It was so much fun working with Gary. We were thick as thieves, man.
Big brother, little brother, we did everything together.
This is Dana Plato. She's the girl in the show.
Me and Gary Coleman and Dana Plato, who played Kimberly in the show,
we hung out together and we had a great time, you know.
I'm only 13 years old and he's only 10, I think.
We used to build the most amazing spaceships.
-I'm fixing his lasers. -He put lasers on, that's the problem.
I got two lasers in the front already. He needs some lasers.
Kids, we're gonna shoot the second show. We need you on stage, please.
ALL: Okay.
All through here was the audience and over here was the set.
And we had, let's see, the living room was right here.
-(MUSIC PLAYING) -This is dancing.
And this was our bedroom.
-Arnold, are you in there? -No, I'm not in there.
And this was the kitchen.
-Well, if it isn't sleeping beauty. -You mean sleeping ugly.
Diff'rent Strokes was a groundbreaking show.
It was a new thing to see blended families on TV.
I never had a white grandma before.
BRIDGES: It was the first time we've seen a white man adopt two Black kids.
BRANDSTEIN: For some white people, the show was unfavorable.
They didn't like it and they were angry with what it was showing.
I don't understand.
Why is a person's color such a big deal to some people?
Sometimes I think if the whole world was the same color,
some people would still find something to hate each other for.
There were some complaints from Black people, too.
They thought that Conrad Bain was being the white savior of Black kids.
I am going to open up a whole new world for you.
It wasn't that there was a white savior there.
It was just a man...
trying to save two kids from ending up being on the streets.
I am going to see that you have the same advantages that I had growing up.
No matter the hate mail from both sides, we knew what we were doing were right,
and the thing that our show proved was love conquers all.
* Ebony and Ivory*
* Live together in perfect harmony*
It was a celebration.
You could feel it. The audience loved Gary.
He stole the show.
-You think we'll hit it big? -Yeah, but don't worry, Willis.
If you get rich and famous, you'll always be a nobody to me.
He was a big man in this little kid's body.
Some of the things that he would say and the way he would say things,
that's how grown men would say it.
And it was very comical. And the audience loved him.
They loved him.
Suddenly Gary is on the cover of everything.
Black magazines,
white magazines, teen magazines. I mean, he's everywhere.
MAN: How about a picture of your kid for the paper?
I think I can force myself to be on the front page.
Gary's catchphrase was, "Whatchu talkin' about?"
Whatchu talkin' about, Kimberley?
I think it came accidentally.
Whatchu talkin' about, Mr. D?
But they had him saying it three times a show.
Whatchu talkin' about, Willis?
Gary attracted star names...
Mrs. Reagan, I didn't know that you knew Mr. Drummond?
I don't.
...like Nancy Reagan.
I'm really here to see Arnold.
Whatchu talkin' about, Mrs. Reagan?
Mr. T, who was very popular at the time.
Well, what do we have here?
And Muhammad Ali.
Could I ask a favor while I've still got breath in my little lungs?
Yeah, what is it?
Could you autograph a picture for me?
-Be glad to. -Here's a pen.
PERILLO: He appeared in six movies for NBC and two feature films.
Satellites are launched and we are ready to button up and get some rest
You are a real genius.
Actually, they call it severely gifted.
But it's no big deal.
I remember asking him, "How do you act? How do you know this?"
And he says, "When the director tells me to laugh, I laugh.
"And when the director tells me to cry, I cry."
And yet he'd be home at night, watching his episode ofDiff'rent Strokes
taking notes
on his performance.
Arnold, you look very handsome.
Yes, I do.
PERILLO: Along with being a genius comedic actor,
Gary had a really vivid, creative imagination.
And you would often find him writing fictional stories,
and doodling the characters in a notebook.
He loved outer space.
He would write the lines and he would draw these characters.
He would tell me, he says someday the people were going to be
just like the people in Outer Space.
He had this affinity towards that...
to the point that I called the showBuck Rogers that was on TV here for years,
I said, "Gary loves your show and he wants to be on it."
And they put him on in two minutes.
ANNOUNCER: Gary Coleman rockets into the 25th century...
as the president of a distant planet, trapped on a world
where only Buck Rogers can save him.
MIAL: I did have a front row seat in the rise of Gary's success.
I was Gary's best friend, like his brother,
but little did we all know that there was a much more challenging story
that we would all soon come to learn.
SUE: At about...
two years old, Gary started to run a temperature.
And that's when they found out
that he had this congenital kidney defect.
One kidney was pretty much atrophied,
and the other kidney was functioning,
but not really...
properly.
(WILLIE SPEAKING)
SUE: It was really, really tough.
But when he was five and a half,
we got the news that they had a kidney for him.
(WILLIE SPEAKING)
SUE: Two weeks after he had his surgery, he was standing on his head and I said,
"Oh my God, don't do that." And he said, "I'm okay." (CHUCKLES)
So, he had a spirit about him that, "I'm going to master this.
"I'm going to do what I want to do, regardless."
Even when I was five
I was the "do or die,"
'"never say die," the tenacious, "I'll be back'," you know, kind of person.
That was the kind of kid I was.
This is the Gary that
the world came to know and love.
And if you look very specifically...
at his size, this was brought on by the immunosuppressant drugs
from his first kidney transplant when he was five.
The drugs stunted his growth.
How tall am I going to be? 6'3"?
Six two?
Six one?
It looks like you're going to grow to be about five feet tall.
Whatchu talkin' about, Doctor?
MIAL: The immunosuppressant drugs brought about the fullness in his face.
You've got the cutest, fattest little cheeks I've ever seen.
Ironically, it was his diminutive size.
and the fullness in his cheeks that created Gary Coleman as we know him.
You're just a sweetie pie.
I was told...
that the prognosis was, if Gary were lucky,
he would live to the age of 12,
and at that point would require another kidney transplant.
So, it's an amazing psychological dynamic
to consider about someone who was so successful...
and so full of life,
who fundamentally never
knew what it was to be fully healthy.
Yeah, he told me, he's like, "Yeah, I had a kidney transplant when I was five."
It was a whole new ballpark for me that, something I just was very unfamiliar with.
I just wanted him happy, healthy,
and just with me.
The thing that I liked about Gary the most
was he treated me like a queen.
He made my life change in so many awesome, drastic ways.
Go to Disneyland, all the things that you think of as a kid
that you want to do,
you never think that that those things are going to happen or be fulfilled.
And he made all that happen and then some.
You know, that meant a lot to me
because I never felt important...
as a child.
I never felt like I got that love
that every human deserves, growing up.
I feel like I got my childhood stripped from me at an early age
because I lost my mom.
And I was always just somebody that needed someone.
All I know is that I love you.
And nobody can put a price on true love.
You can't.
Watch the mic!
I'm now aware of you! (CHUCKLES)
I'm a Utah agent.
When do I get somebody as big as Gary Coleman come in?
It doesn't happen.
But it was a joy to me to be able to help them both.
The only thing that mattered to Gary was Shannon.
That's all he wanted...
was to find somebody who he could love.
And Shannon just needed love.
PRICE: Our wedding was amazing.
We went on a helicopter ride, and we went up to the Valley of Fire
and we got married on the most beautiful mountain.
OFFICIANT: I, Gary, take you Shannon.
I, Gary, take you Shannon.
-OFFICIANT: To be my wife. -To be my wife.
I was like, "This is the most beautiful place
"that anybody could have a wedding ceremony."
It was great.
OFFICIANT: I will be faithful to you.
I will, and have been faithful to you.
OFFICIANT: I will be honest with you.
I will be honest with you, and I have been.
OFFICIANT: I will stand by your side.
I will stand by your side through whatever it takes.
My prayer was that he would meet somebody that loved him...
Gary, place this on your lady's finger.
...and somebody that he loved, who could encourage him
mentally, physically, spiritually, and in any other way, you know.
I love you.
But that wasn't the case.
GARY: Dion, turn around, so I can get your open eyes.
You're shooting it against the window.
By 1983, Gary was 15 and really at the height of his success.
-(ALL CHEERING) -GARY: Alright, enough that. Let me eat my bread.
He had a team around him
that became more like a family after a while.
He had myself as his agent.
And my responsibility was his theatrical representation
in negotiating his contracts.
MAN: Do you remember the name of your card?
Ace of Hearts.
-Are you sure? -Yeah.
PERILLO: He had a lawyer, he had a publicist.
And then he had Anita de Thomas, which was the business manager...
-GARY: Anita? -What?
-Where are you? -I'm right here.
...whose job it was to manage their money.
GARY: Yeah, perfect!
PERILLO: The Colemans became his managers.
Most children are not the employers of their parents.
BRIDGES: The atmosphere changed on the set when Mr. Coleman showed up
and I remember the first thing I heard from him was,
"Look out! Look out! The star is here."
And Gary came in on top of some bodyguard's shoulders.
And I looked at Conrad and he looked at me
and he was like, "Okay, this is gonna change things."
CHANEY: Nobody wanted Willie on the set.
Because he created havoc.
He'd be standing there.
So, everybody knew that Willie was there.
MIAL: He was very vocal
about the fact that his son was the star of the show.
CHANEY: Gary went from being cute to ugly.
He picked up all the ugliness of his dad,
telling people, "Who do you think I am?
"I run this show."
One day, he said, "Come here, JoAnn, let me slap you."
I was like, "Slap me?"
I said, "Boy, if you slap me,
"it'll be the end of Diff'rent Strokesbecause I will beat your ass."
MIAL: And then he became sick again.
The kidney that had been transplanted
was absorbed by the body.
And so, from December 31st of 1985
until his death, Gary lived
with not a single kidney in his body.
He then started on dialysis,
which is going to the hospital
three times a week and sitting at the machine
three to four hours at a time,
while every drop of your blood
is cycled through a machine, cleansing the blood.
And it is very oppressive for most people.
I can recall showing up to set one day,
and Gary was in the middle of a scene,
completed the scene, bent over and threw up.
CHANEY: He spent a lot of time with me.
So the producers were like, "Well, JoAnn, how is Gary doing?"
I said, "Gary is sick."
The studio said, "Okay,
"let's go down for two days until Gary is feeling better."
Willie was huffing and puffing,
and he said, "Who the hell do you think you are?
"Why did you have them cancel the show?"
I said, "Because they asked me how Gary was feeling,
"and I told them he didn't feel good.
"So, sorry if I pissed you off."
BRIDGES: I remember the time when Gary was throwing up.
I overheard Willie, you know, saying,
"You got to get out there and you got to work. You know?
"You got people that depending on you.
"You gotta get out there and do what you gotta do."
I never saw it. As a matter of fact, I saw the opposite.
There was one occasion when Gary was invited to Australia,
for tons of money to do television shows.
And Willie Coleman says, "No, he's not going
"because we don't think he's feeling well these days."
And we turned down a fortune.
(WILLIE SPEAKING)
MIAL: When Gary was 17,
as well as his poor health,
he was not comfortable
with the fact that the character of Arnold Jackson
was not aging at the same pace that Gary Coleman was aging.
Don't worry. You get ready, I'll drop you off at school.
Okay, Dad. Thanks.
BRANDSTEIN: They didn't want to change him.
I mean, he was, you know, "We have a golden goose!"
He's the golden goose. He was.
And then that caused him pain, emotionally, I'm sure.
-Are they maturing you in the show? -Not much.
Are you complaining? Like you know?
-Of course. -Yeah.
Not much I can do about it yet.
He was just a meal ticket.
That's how he felt.
"I'm just making money, but I'm not happy."
He wasn't happy.
PERILLO: They didn't think that Gary was happy in the character anymore.
And I think it ran its course.
I bet you're all wondering what I'm doing here.
Yeah. Now beat it.
BRANDSTEIN: The ratings were declining.
I mean, how many times can you deal with the same kind of jokes
or the same kind of energy?
Well, I've had it. I'm quitting.
I'm out of here.
When Diff'rent Strokes was canceled in 1986
Gary was 18 and he was exhausted.
He was spent.
He retreated.
He went into a very deep depression for months.
In fact, he vowed never to work again in the entertainment business.
And no one would accept that.
Not his parents, not an agent, not a business manager, not a lawyer.
And, in fact, there was a very dynamic,
concerted effort to put him back to work
as soon as possible.
Which was primarily spearheaded by his agent, Vic Perillo.
The agent that I had all during Diff'rent Strokes
didn't pressure me until later when I wanted to quit.
When Strokeswent off the air, there were projects,
three of them that I developed for them, you know.
NARRATOR: With Gary on the scene, a crook shouldn't be
PERILLO: He played a little detective,
and they shot the pilot up in Canada.
MIAL: Gary resented that they were still
pursuing opportunities for him when he was clearly expressive
about not wanting to do anything in the entertainment business.
He would say to me, "Why are they doing this?
"Why isn't anybody listening to me?"
About a year later, I was at home and about 10:30 my phone rang.
And it was Gary.
He said, "Well, I just wanted to call you
"to say goodbye.
"I cannot take this anymore.
"It's not worth living.
"I'm gonna kill myself."
I raced over in the deepest fear that anybody could imagine
not knowing what I was going to find.
But he was sitting alone with a keyboard.
And he was just tapping single notes at a time.
We sat and we cried.
And I held him and comforted him.
And just let him weep.
And I concluded, you know, "You don't deserve this.
"You don't deserve to go through this.
"And you do deserve to take a break. To get away,
"to unfamiliar people, unfamiliar places."
And that was when the discussion came up about Hawaii.
GARY: You're getting everything I already got.
We jumped on a plane and off to Hawaii we went.
He began to ask very specific questions about his money.
What did I know?
I very clearly expressed to him
that I felt that some of his businesspeople in his life.
were completely insincere,
that they were duplicitous with him.
Because I heard very frequently,
"Gary's a little jerk.
"Thank God he pays us a great salary."
Just horrible things that left nothing
to the imagination about how they really felt.
GARY: I wasn't getting it.
I just wasn't getting it, until I finally just said,
You know, "Enough of all you people.
"I'm sick of all you people.
"I don't want to hear from any more of you people.
"I want an accounting. I want it now."
Eventually, it came to a point where
Gary terminated his business relationship
with his entire team of handlers
and his parents.
I kind of expected the call to come in,
because he was letting everybody go.
He let Anita de Thomas go.
He let his publicists go.
And then I was the last.
I said, "Gary, this isn't going to be good for you
"and it's not going to be good for me."
There was a silence at the end of the phone, you know.
I'm sure he was influenced by people
to get Mrs. de Thomas away from the finances
and get us away from him.
Dion will always be my lifelong mentor,
a lifesaver more than twice.
And he's the one that opened my eyes to the rest of my life.
STERN: Right.
I think that Dion had a wonderful relationship with Gary at the beginning.
But I think that he convinced himself that Gary needed people around him
that would take care of him and that we were all beasts.
And it couldn't be the farthest from the truth.
-To Dion. -To Gary.
-Best friends. -Best friends.
-Best luck. Best Money. -Ha. Scary.
MIAL: I became Gary's business manager
in late 1987.
I think even Dion was inspired to say,
"Hey, listen, you're hanging out with a big child star.
"Why don't you move in and become his manager."
I did not have any intention of riding
the coattails of Gary Coleman, and I didn't need to.
I came from a family that was successful.
I didn't need Gary for money.
I received the job based upon the trust
that was well established in my relationship with him.
That was not part of a long term plan, and it scared me out of my mind.
I'm glad we pulled it off.
I hope you're happy.
Maybe we should do this again next year.
And I'll pay for it.
Maybe. Bye.
For two years,
there were deep investigations into Gary's finances.
When I first met Gary, it was at an invitation,
to become part of the legal team that was investigating his finances
and his business relationships with his entire management team.
What we found out almost immediately was that he'd earned over $18,000,000
in fees as an actor, and most of the money was going to people that weren't Gary.
REPORTER: His parents became his personal managers
and took the biggest cut, 20%.
His agent, Vic Perillo, 10%.
His business manager, Anita de Thomas, was taking 5%.
His two lawyers were taking 7.5%.
So even before taxes, almost half of Gary Coleman's earnings were gone.
RYCE: These were professional fees, which were industry standard and legal.
REPORTER: One piece was supposed to be set aside for Gary Coleman alone.
California law required that 25% of his income go into a blocked account.
The blocked account is administered by the court.
And it's supposed to just go into a standard savings account
and just sits there until he turns 18.
But what our investigation showed
was that, again and again, Anita de Thomas and the Colemans
would go into court and petition to have large sums of Gary's money
taken out of the safe, blocked accounts and placed into investments.
REPORTER: Millions were put into complex real estate deals.
An office building in Denver, this strip mall in Colorado Springs,
and this building in Salt Lake City.
All of the investments failed.
Every investment was 100% loss. All gone.
PERILLO: Sue Coleman put her trust in people
that were representing Gary, like Anita de Thomas.
So if they said, "This is a good investment for him
"and this is a good investment for him," she took their word for it.
And then we discovered something even worse.
RYCE: There was a series of loans and overpayments
from the blocked account that went to the parents
and Anita de Thomas, who said, "Oh, no,
"that was a gift.
"Gary never meant us to pay that back.
"It was always a gift."
It's even worse than that.
They took money out of the blocked account
and placed it into a pension fund in Gary's name.
And then dissolved the pension fund,
and took $770,000 of what had been Gary's money
and gave it to themselves as recipients of the pension fund.
INTERVIEWER: Is that legal?
No, it's not legal.
I mean, none of this is legal.
I mean, certainly none of it is moral.
It's a direct lift of money from Gary
to themselves.
I was not aware that money was going to be taken
out of his blocked account to be put into a pension plan for us.
Did you get paid the three quarters of a million?
Not that we know of.
MIAL: We went over to his parents' house together,
and began to explain the findings.
It rolled right off of them like water off of a duck's back.
At one point, Willie said, "We are your parents.
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with your business affairs.
"Nothing at all."
Gary felt not only betrayed but completely abandoned
by the people who were closest to him,
his parents.
Gary was left with no choice
but to file a lawsuit against his then business manager,
Anita De Thomas, and his parents, Willie and Sue.
As the litigation progressed,
Willie and Sue felt that it was necessary
to file a petition to have him conserved.
Gary was 22.
The Colemans made representations to the court that Gary could not handle
his own business affairs, that the court should intervene.
And that's a very ugly thing to do to your child in public.
My concern was that with his medical condition
and all the things that goes on with him
that can affect the way he thinks.
And then to have people zeroing in on him and confusing him,
I'm just concerned that he'd... do things irrationally.
RYCE: The conservatorship case is a very concerted
and expensive attempt to hide the truth
because the public is told that Gary can't handle himself.
Okay. And If he can't handle himself,
then the lawsuits and investigations
against them end.
MIAL: Gary was absolutely livid.
He was embarrassed that someone would make
such a claim before the world.
There was the first hearing
with Judge Martha Goldin.
The parents remained
on one side of the courtroom, and Gary was on the opposite side.
And this judge was savvy enough
to call Gary back into her chambers
and have a private meeting with him.
And she emerged to scold his parents.
Mr. Coleman does not come close
to requiring a conservator.
Thank you, Your Honor.
REPORTER: Where do you think things went wrong between you and Gary?
I don't think anything has gone wrong between me and Gary.
Do you feel he's just receiving poor advice? Is that what you're saying?
That's my opinion.
After nearly three full years
of litigation, Gary went back into court.
RYCE: When we finally got to the trial,
the judge did everything the judge could do,
which was find that $1.3 million had been taken out of the accounts falsely
and was therefore owed.
And that was his judgement.
A California judge bought Coleman's argument
that the 25-year-old actor's parents and business advisers
skimmed some of his earnings.
The court said the money
that had been appropriated for our pension,
for our savings should be returned to him.
And I said, "Rather than go through this...
"take it."
RYCE: During the courts and in interviews afterwards,
the parents would say...
"I'm not a bookkeeper,
"I was not an accountant.
"I didn't handle any finances or anything.
"All we did was sign documents and gave our approval."
(INTERVIEWER SPEAKING)
RYCE: At the beginning, it's a couple of befuddled people from Chicago
who didn't know how to handle
the sharp business managers that you run across in LA,
but at the end, I just cannot imagine
how you cannot notice all the money being drained
out of the accounts and gone, especially when you're getting it.
I do believe that they became aware that, "Yes, some things were really wrong.
"But we didn't deliberately engage in this behavior
"to consciously and deliberately harm our son."
I would never represent that that was their intention.
However, once being educated about what had happened,
they continued to refuse to admit it.
Over the years, I would try and talk to them about certain suspicions
and things in my professional career, and they just they either turned
a deaf ear or they didn't want to hear it.
Or they just didn't support me.
And I have taken that very deeply to heart
and I resent it, and it still bothers me today.
And there's nothing I can do about that feeling because it's the truth.
It's honest.
(WILLIE SPEAKING)
It separated Gary from his parents,
to the point where even if he wanted to talk to them, he couldn't.
It's very sad. It's very sad.
That was a tough time for us.
It was really tough.
But we let him know that we were always, that we were home.
And, "Your room is still here.
"Anytime you want to come home, come home."
Gary always, you know, would tell me,
"Don't give my parents my phone number.
"Do not give it to them."
And I remember one time, Willie called me,
He says, (MIMICS WILLIE) "Todd, can you have Gary call me?"
I went, "No," click and I hung up.
Gary told me that he started having financial issues when he was 18,
and that's why I never really had any interest to meet his parents.
Because you don't just take advantage of someone like that.
-INTERVIEWER: Who's on your lap? -This is Autumn.
She's my fun little rescue puppy.
She's very lovable.
I was friends with Gary in Santaquin,
and the first thing he said to me was, "All she wants is money."
But then there wasn't any.
Shannon took me out to a closet
and there was a stack of photos of him.
She was grabbing them, so that he could autograph and sell them.
And that's the very first time I'd seen her explode on him
because she couldn't find these pictures.
I think the best word to describe their relationship, in my view, was tumultuous.
It was all over the place.
Sometimes they'd be happy and joking.
And on the flip of a dime, it would become raging,
yelling, demeaning, and disparaging.
I would say that they fought mainly about money,
because Gary constantly needed money and work.
And there was not a lot of work
in Utah for him.
She constantly wanted him to go make the money.
"Call this person, call that person.
"Do this."
He just always felt like he was a paycheck.
PRICE: He put a $17,000 down payment on my car, almost paid my car off.
But, you know, a lot of people just stick their hand out.
They want your money. They want your fame.
And I wasn't like that at all.
All you care about is the money.
That's all you want.
The love for Gary keeps fading away
because you believe that Gary
doesn't want to support you.
But how are the bills going to get paid?
You don't pay the bills without me making some kind of money.
If we were in an argument, you know, cuss words obviously get brought up.
And a couple of times we were both like, "F you."
And he's like, "You're a bitch."
And I'm like, "You're an asshole."
So, you know.
Just stuff like that.
It was just constant.
It was just every day, her doing something,
her creating some situation, her creating drama,
demeaning his manhood,
demeaning his size, sometimes calling him a failure.
I mean, sometimes she'd just come right out and say, "I hate you, Gary."
And it was disturbing.
We had a talk about their relationship on a few occasions,
and we talked about how he said that, "She's my soul mate."
And I said, "Gary, love is not enough.
"And the way she respects you is not the kind of respect
"that you would want to have in a relationship."
I was always optimistic that he was going to one day come to me and say, "I'm done.
"I just, I need her gone.
"I need her out of my life."
So I was sad for him that he didn't get to that point.
Yeah, that switch right there.
Oh, it's cushy. (CHUCKLES)
Back in October 1997, I was working at this location
for a chain of video rental shops.
I was filing movies back in the main library
and I heard this voice say,
"Excuse me, miss. Could you help me find a movie, please?"
And I turned and I looked.
And it was Gary (BLEEP) Coleman. Wow!
This is where I had my car parked that night,
and I came out at 1:00 in the morning
and I found Gary Coleman sitting on the hood of my car like a giant hood ornament.
And then I said, "What are you doing here?"
"It's four hours later. What are you doing here?"
And he said, "I was waiting for you." (CHUCKLES)
We exchanged numbers and talked a little, and then I drove back home.
As soon as I got there, I rang the number he'd given me and it really was him.
And we spent the next six hours on the phone.
So, yeah, the friendship really just blew up. It was instant.
It was like a big bang of friendship. (CHUCKLES)
After a few weeks, I pretty much just moved in.
He was living on the fourth floor of these apartments in Culver City.
Eventually we were an item.
Gary and I were a couple for six and a half years,
but he had no interest in the physical act of sex.
I'm reading your bio. It says you are a virgin.
Yes, still to this day, because I was not endowed with that,
"Go! Go! Conquer every woman" libido that every man has.
-Right. -I don't have that.
But he was very romantic.
So, yeah, he loved to hold hands and kiss and snuggle.
And he really showed a lot of affection.
MIAL: One of the most challenging things
that I had to deal with as Gary's manager at that time
was, you know, getting the work.
Gary did feel a renewal in spirit.
He had this desire to be part of the entertainment industry once again,
but he was still 4'8"
and Gary loved action adventure movies.
Rambo.
You know, he wanted to play a superhero.
And there were no roles for Gary Coleman as a superhero.
He wanted to play a cop.
He wanted to play a larger-than-life villain.
I'm 31 years old. "Wholesome" must die.
Otherwise, I'll never be able to do any cool bad guys.
I'll never be able to do any cool characters of any depth ever
because people are still thinking of me as Arnold on Diff'rent Strokes.
We're not having that.
-This looks like a great place, Arnold. -Yeah. Willis would love it.
Yeah, that is, if he wouldn't mind living over a haunted Indian burial ground.
GRAY: He was just getting piecemeal work, tidbits here and there,
and people still wanted him to do Strokes-related stuff.
You hear the wailing of the dead.
(WAILING)
Whatchu' talkin' bout, Will?
People didn't want Gary. They wanted Arnold Jackson.
That was common.
They might not let you in because the only black person they respect is Ted Danson.
Whatchu' talkin' about, Bundy?
Gary absolutely despised that catchphrase.
He called it "the line."
I'm not saying "that line."
Whatchu talking about, Gary?
I mean, just walking down the street, he would have people run up on him.
"Yo, yo yo, he's got to say it! He's got to say it!"
They would just, people treated him like he was a penny arcade,
like they could just stick a penny in him and get a good show.
I was wondering if you'd say your famous line for us.
I knew that was coming.
I'm sorry.
-You know... -You don't have to do it.
You don't have to do it. I already did it.
No, it's not that I wouldn't do it,
it's that, I don't have it in me.
I can't, it sounds ridiculous when I do it.
I'm sorry.
Quite often, child actors don't go forward in their careers.
Some of them aren't talented enough.
Some of them are labeled too strongly with the character they played.
-Please welcome Todd Bridges, Dana Plato and Gary Coleman! -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)
Gary and Todd and Dana after Diff'rent Strokes
struggled with where their career was going.
(ALL LAUGHING)
Todd and Dana became involved in drugs and alcohol.
Former child star Todd Bridges is in trouble with the law once again.
Bridges was arrested yesterday in California for having drugs
and a loaded handgun in his car.
They had bets on us in Vegas, who would die first.
People lost a lot of money on me, you know, because I'm still here.
After a troubled career, child actress Dana Plato has died.
Known for her role on Diff'rent Strokes,
Plato died Saturday of an overdose just days after denying she used drugs.
Dana Plato was 34 years old.
It's a tough thing to be famous and be so young.
So much fame, so much opportunity.
Kids have power when they are in that position, and it's unreal.
So you leave behind your power and suddenly you feel terrible,
because now you have to really struggle to be like a regular kid.
If someone had've told me that my life would have been like this
early enough where I could have got out, I would have got out.
I'd say, "No, you know, I want to go and have a normal life
"and have friends."
Twenty years ago, I made millions and millions on TV.
The sad part is the people who took care of the money spent it.
Recently, I needed some cash, fast.
GRAY: Gary needed work. He wasn't getting enough TV work to live on,
so times were very tough for him.
CashCall was there when I needed them.
I work because I like to work.
If I'm working as a security guard
or I'm flipping burgers or bagging groceries,
-it's because I enjoy working. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
One of his dream jobs as a little boy had been to be a cop.
So Gar was so ecstatic when he had finally become a security guard.
Becoming a security guard was Gary's way of fulfilling that fantasy,
of being an action hero, playing a cop, being a cop.
GRAY: He was so proud. He was just crowing.
And then being a security guard went wrong for him.
Former child actor Gary Coleman faces assault charges.
The 4'7" Coleman now works as a security guard.
He surrendered to police in Hawthorne, California,
after allegedly punching an autograph-seeker.
GRAY: He was going to the security store to get a bulletproof vest
and out of nowhere...
"Gary Coleman! Gary Coleman! Can I get an autograph?"
And he walked over and gave it to her and she was like,
"Well, can you write down something nice?"
She says, "Well, can you put a little more?"
You know, just add a little something, like "good luck" or something.
He took it and ripped it up and was like, "Well, for what?
"You know, this doesn't mean anything."
She had this hurt look in her face. She says, "No, I want it for my son."
And she was like, "Well, I can see why
"you didn't make it as an adult actor, just a child actor,"
and that must have set him off because he walked up to her
and literally punched her in the eye.
REPORTER: Former child actor Gary Coleman pleaded no contest
to assault and battery charges on Thursday.
He wept as he was given a 90-day suspended sentence,
a $400 fine, and an order to attend anger management classes.
Gary regretted what happened instantly.
Instantly.
He felt that really, in that moment, the bottom had fallen out once again,
and it was horrible.
Yet another opportunity for the public
to make fun of him, to cast aspersions upon him.
And to belittle him.
Oh, m God, it's Gary Coleman! Can I have your autograph?
Miss, please, I'm busy at work right now,
and I really don't like doing that anymore.
Thank you. I'm so sorry.
You's an asshole.
That's why your broke ass ain't famous now. (BLEEP)
Bitch, what?
GRAY: He was really depressed.
He stopped going out as often, he didn't trust people anymore.
This was one of those experiences that changed him.
He constantly referred to himself as "God's punching bag."
He felt like one of life's jokes
and that he was never meant to be a person of good fortune.
In one note that he left behind for me, he writes,
"I am a hurt, confused, broken man with no one and nowhere to turn to.
"I am more sad now than I have ever been, and I feel suicidal.
"But of course, because of fear,
"frustration and no real means of doing it painlessly,
"I can't release my soul from the ongoing madness,
"betrayal and misery that surrounds my life."
It's horrible.
This kind of loneliness, this kind of hopelessness.
GRAY: Gary often didn't sleep well, so a lot of times we'd just
drive out here along Mulholland Drive and look out over the city.
If we could catch a few stars once in a while, it was nice.
Gary liked outer space, and the idea of space exploration
was just a way of hoping and dreaming
about that better future that Gar wanted to live in.
It wouldn't be about Black or white or male or female,
tall, short, rich, or any of that.
He thought that in the future like that, he could have been treated
with all the respect that he deserved and not as the butt of a joke.
Nor as a penny arcade.
So this was a way to just look up
and hope for that better-ness that was coming someday.
In 2005, he got approached to do Church Ball,
which was filming out in the state of Utah.
I'm gonna wipe the floor with your face, little man.
He called me on the last day of the shoot,
and he said, "I've decided something.
"I want to move out here to Utah."
"The people here in Utah are awesome.
"They're so friendly and wonderful
"and they're not treating me like Gary Coleman.
"They're treating me like just Gar." And I was like "Oh!"
He said, "Is that okay with you?"
And I said, "Yeah, I'll be there. Not a problem."
So I packed up the Los Angeles apartment
and we drove straight to Santaquin.
It took me about four days to get out there, and I was exhausted.
So I hopped out of the truck and Gary came running out.
And Shannon Price was walking out of the house behind him.
She just struck me as very, very young.
I was 19 years old when I met him.
And I was worried whether or not she would be immature.
I was like, "Hey, my name is Shannon. Nice to meet you."
And I could just tell immediately.
Cold shoulder. Very standoffish. Not friendly at all.
Within the first day,
I was already picking up on her wanting things.
Not wanting Gar, wanting things.
I remember one night she had been drinking.
And she spit beer on me.
Believe it or not, she did.
After an admittedly ugly night, eventually, I told Gar
that I think it'd be best if I go away for a little bit
and let you explore this and see what it is.
We always had the freedom to explore other relationships if we wanted to.
I was really hoping that it would be another person in his life that, you know,
would lift him up and bring him joy and that's not what happened at the end.
MIAL: I had left his employ as his manager.
And when Gary moved to Utah, I was not aware at all
of what was happening with him on a day-to-day basis.
I learned that there was someone that he met.
This "Shannon," and I wasn't terribly concerned
until I learned that she was living with him.
Then I had grave concerns.
PRICE: There were a couple times where we had arguments that I'm like,
"Hey, you should go do this film because, you know,
"we do need to pay the bills at some point."
Some of the movies that he did the last few years of his life, he didn't like.
Shannon said, "You gotta do it. We need money. We got to live."
I remember he would call me every single day
and he's like, he would blame me for it.
And I was like, "You know what? I'm done," and I decided to divorce him.
They were divorced in 2008.
And I know they got back together socially after that.
I know that she continued to
live at his house and eat his food and have him buy her things
even after they were divorced.
We still lived together. We still stayed together.
We were still together.
He had told me himself, "She's just my roommate."
In the public and out and about, it was, "we're married."
But behind closed doors, it was, "You're just my roommate."
There were multiple times when Gary and I
discussed a restraining order.
He just couldn't deal with it anymore.
It was never served to me, so it was just a document
that Randy had made up and had printed out.
KESTER: We'd prepared the paperwork,
and the next day he'd call me and say...
Randy, it's Gary Coleman. I need to rescind that order.
Everything's cool, everything's fine so far, so maybe the fourth time around
things will work out.
It was just toxic.
I know the police had been there quite a few times to domestic issues.
They both laid their hands on each other.
Neither one of them was the innocent party.
Strokesstar Gary Coleman sits in the Utah County Jail tonight.
Coleman was booked into jail around 1:00 this afternoon
after being arrested by Santaquin police.
REPORTER: Gary. What happened today?
Nothing, nothing you'd be interested in.
No jail time,
not leaving my house, not paying any heavy fines.
And now I'm just gonna go to lunch.
It was only a couple of times as far as anything physical.
Yeah, there was a couple of times.
I mean, I slapped him a couple of times.
I mean, nothing major, nothing like, "red flag."
Like, people smack each other. They hit each other.
People do it.
You know, if you deny it, you're crazy.
I have this on my head because I fell down the stairs.
I don't want people thinking that my wife is abusing.
Why don't you want to answer the question about whether you beat your wife?
-(BLEEP) -Everything out. Pardon me?
-You can go (BLEEP) yourself, and quit asking me. -Really?
Is that the way you talk to your wife?
Yes, I have to. If I need to. But I don't.
-I don't know you. -Hold on. Hold on.
If I get hit by a bus tonight,
I'm not gonna care because she's pushing my buttons
and I don't like her now and the next thing I'm going to do
is leave, so (BLEEP) all of you.
-Gary, come back. -No (BLEEP) you.
He had dialysis that morning, and he came home,
and he immediately came upstairs and I could tell
he wasn't really feeling that well.
But also I was really sick.
I have an inner ear problem, so I was just basically bedridden.
And I asked him, I was like, "Hey, would you mind going downstairs
"and just putting some pizza rolls in the microwave for me?"
Then he went downstairs.
I have a lot of questions and concerns about what happened in the house that day.
BUYS: I was shocked when I found out he was fixing her dinner after dialysis
because I've seen how he felt after, he was weak.
He was sick,
and honestly, he just wanted to go take a nap.
When I heard the big, loud boom,
I was like, "Gary? Gary? Gary?" and I heard nothing.
I got out of bed and I went downstairs and there he was laying down
on the floor with blood around his head.
And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think.
So, yeah, of course that's when I called 911.
I heard the 911 call. I was appalled.
"I can't help him because there's blood"?
If you care about somebody, you don't care about that.
She was more worried about herself than the person she was calling 911 for.
(SIGHS) I think her actions speak volumes,
and I don't have to say much more than that.
My 911 call was frantic, but, I mean, it was
a decent amount of blood, and it just freaked me out.
I did not want to intervene with where all the blood was,
because I knew help was coming.
She didn't help him.
She wanted somebody to hurry and get there and help him.
PRICE: It's not that I didn't help him.
I helped him. Clearly I helped him.
The paramedics came. They made sure that he was being assisted.
I just thought he was going to go to the hospital, get stitched up, come back.
All is good.
MIAL: She watched them load him into the back of the ambulance,
waved goodbye and went back into the house and put the garage door down.
And Gary was alone.
I was not in the right frame of mind to have gone with him.
I was frantic. I was stressed.
Anxiety, sad.
You know, just stuff like that
that any normal person would feel.
And I called him at the hospital and I was like,
"Do you know anything, like, what's going on?"
I was like, "When are you coming home?"
And he's like, "I have a really bad headache.
"Okay. I think I'm just gonna go to sleep."
And I was like, "I'll talk to you later. I love you."
And he's like, "I love you, too."
And that was the last thing he said to me.
The next day, I get a phone call and they say he has an intracranial hemorrhage.
So he has, you know, certain bleeding in the brain.
And they were taking him to dialysis,
and he immediately went into cardiac arrest.
NORD: A friend sent me a text and said,
"Hey, Gary's in the hospital and it's critical.
"It's really bad." So I immediately sent some text messages to Shannon.
And I was encouraging her to go to the hospital.
And I said, "It's really important that you be there."
PRICE: So then my dad and I, we went together Thursday to go see him.
He was on a ventilator. I mean, he wasn't breathing on his own.
But he was still alive using a machine.
It was really heartbreaking to see him that way.
And the doctors and the nurses told me, they're like,
"Hey, he's not gonna make it."
And I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to think.
And they were like, "Shannon, what do you want to do?"
Actor Gary Coleman is in critical condition
this morning at a hospital in Utah. His family described...
SUE: Willie heard it on television.
All I could do was take my cell phone, call the sheriff's office
in Salt Lake City and say,
"I hear my son is in the hospital and he's critical."
"Would you send somebody over to speak with Shannon and have her call me?"
She did not call me.
MIAL: I pulled up Shannon's number and called
and she was very distant, very short.
"The doctor says it doesn't look good at all.
"He's probably going to die. He's a goner.
"He's done. He's done."
I get a call from Shannon and she said, "You better run up here.
"He's not gonna make it."
I headed straight to the hospital.
I told her to start writing down these questions
of what you need to ask the physician.
And she asked several times,
"Is there anything we can do?"
"Is there any way you could get the fluid out?"
"Did you ever perform an EEG?"
But the doctors suggested that she take him off life support.
There's nothing there.
His brain is gone.
His head was full of blood.
I went in there and I said everything I needed to say.
"I love you. I'm gonna miss you.
"You're the most amazing thing that happened in my life.
"And you really were loved. And you were cared about.
"I want you to know that if I failed you, I'm sorry.
"I'm sorry that you had to live with these health issues in this life."
And the decision,
to say, "Yes, take him off life support,"
was the hardest thing I had ever had to do.
REPORTER: Gary Coleman died yesterday after being taken off life support.
SUE: Stunned, you know?
You couldn't find the words to speak...
or describe how it felt at that time.
It broke me. It broke me mentally.
I spent the next three weeks bawling my guts out.
Every day from sunup to sundown.
We were absolutely stumped because there were way too many questions
with no answers.
PRICE: The fact that people come out and say that she murdered Gary,
she pushed him down the stairs.
That really, really, really hurt me.
HORD: I think everybody felt that the death of Gary Coleman was suspicious,
and whatever happened in the kitchen when he fell, and have that much blood,
you know, it raises a question, "What really happened there?"
MIAL: He was 4'8" tall.
He didn't have that far to fall.
In order to create such a significant injury,
it just begs question after question after question.
I personally, in my opinion, do not think that he fell.
I want to say so much, but I don't...
I don't know what...
What I can say without being sued.
PRICE: I broke down, I cried. I'm not going to lie.
Like, how can people be so evil and just think that I did this?
Why? Because I'm the ex-wife. I'm the evil person, right?
You said, I've had a lot of people sit there and say, "Yeah, she pushed him."
I would never hurt my husband. Ever.
People felt like she had been the one that caused his death
and either pushed him down the stairs or knocked him down or something.
But the police concluded that there was no foul play.
There was no criminal element to it, that it was just an unfortunate accident,
that he had just simply fallen and hit his head.
I mean, I'm here for a reason talking to you right now
because I didn't do anything.
I didn't touch him. I didn't hurt him. I was nowhere near him.
Nothing happened.
MIAL: The spotlight turned to the decision...
to pull the plug and end Gary's life.
GRAY: Gary had an advanced healthcare directive
where he stated he wanted at least two weeks of care
before any plugs were pulled.
So, I just... I can't understand...
why anyone would pull the plug
two days later, not two weeks later?
Did you not want to give him some time?
Why did you feel the need...
to do that so quickly?
I mean, you never gave him a chance.
PRICE: On the medical directive, he said if there was two or more doctors
that stated that he's not going to come out of it,
then to take him off life support.
And there were enough doctors...
and medical staff that told me his condition
and that he just wasn't going to get better.
I think that legally...
Miss Price is covered in terms of turning off Gary's life support...
but not morally.
MIAL: The cover photo of Gary in his final moments...
was the ultimate betrayal.
PRICE: I actually took that photo. It was a selfie.
And I was also crying and I had a tear.
That's how everybody is now going to remember Gary.
I mean, nobody looks good when they're dying.
But not everybody gets their...
Their final moment sold.
It's my understanding that she sold them.
It was...
one of the most depraved acts I've ever seen perpetrated...
on another human being in my life.
I think that people needed to honestly see it,
to see what he went through health wise.
To show people like, "Hey, look, he's human."
I couldn't believe anything worse
than Gary being dead could possibly happen.
Damned if she didn't find a way to do it. (CHUCKLES SADLY)
Funeral plans are expected to be announced soon
for the former child star Gary Coleman.
He specifically said, "No funeral, no headstone.
"I want to be left alone in the end.
"I want to fade away."
He was really very tired of everyone wanting him for all the wrong reasons.
Gary did live a life fraught with so many disappointments.
There were a lot of people that let him down.
GRAY: I know Gar felt let down by his parents first and foremost.
But it just kept piling on.
Business managers, Hollywood, the public,
and, in the end, Miss Price.
GARY: Celebrity's always a burden. I don't care who you are.
I don't care how much you claim you like it.
You're stuck with it for life.
You're gonna die a celebrity. Even if you haven't worked in 20 years.
MIAL: The entertainment industry...
is not designed...
to protect anyone's life.
It will chew you up...
and spit you out.
Gary said this several times. He said, "I feel as if I never existed."
How could someone feel like that?
How could Gary Coleman feel like he feels as if he's never existed?
He is the greatest child actor.
In my book, he is the greatest child actor of all time.
But he honestly felt like he never existed.
Because he was always Arnold.
His life...
is definitely a cautionary tale.
But I choose to acknowledge his life
in a complete whole perspective for everything that it was.
The tragic moments as well as his victory and his triumphs.
Super-Arnold is ready for action.
There are certain performers that are given to us,
to change our lives, to make us happy.
And I think he was one of them.
Monsters spotted on the Empire State Building.
The proof of the pudding is in the tasting.
And his life and career tasted great.
So long, wood monster,
I'm turning you into toothpicks with my zowie zap gun.
Zap, zap, zap.
Give him that credit.
And acknowledge him for that.
Super-Arnold saves New York again!
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)