The Heartbreaking Story of ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ Teen Idol Dana Plato: From Stardom to Addiction, Crime and Death at 34
The child star charmed audiences in the late '70s and early '80s, but struggled after leaving the classic sitcom
Growing up in the spotlight is notoriously difficult, and few child stars embodied this sad truth quite like Dana Plato. The actress became a teen idol of the late ’70s and early ’80s thanks to her role as Kimberly Drummond in Diff’rent Strokes, but her early fame proved challenging to navigate, as she battled personal demons and tragically died at just 34 years old in 1999.
Over the course of its eight seasons from 1978 to 1986, Diff’rent Strokes was beloved for its mix of humor and heart and its sensitive handling of race and class issues, and Kimberly, the teen daughter of a wealthy widower in New York and loving older sister to her two adopted Black brothers, was a role model to countless Gen X girls. Today, Plato’s story serves as a cautionary tale. Read on to learn all about the teen star’s too-brief life and career.
How Dana Plato became a teen sitcom star
Dana Plato was born to a teen mom in 1964 and adopted as a baby. As a child, she trained as a figure skater (a skill she later showed off in Diff’rent Strokes) and she began her acting career by appearing in dozens of commercials. She made her TV debut with a bit part in a 1975 episode of The Six Million Dollar Man and appeared in the TV movie Beyond the Bermuda Triangle that same year. She then moved into film, playing the daughter of Gilligan’s Island star Dawn Wells in Return to Boggy Creek (1977) and Jane Fonda’s daughter in California Suite (1978).
Plato was spotted by one of Diff’rent Strokes’ producers when she made an appearance on The Gong Show, leading her to be cast in her breakthrough role at 14. The young actress wasn’t a series regular in the first season, but once the show’s producers picked up on the fact that her charisma and relatability would make her a fan favorite with female viewers, she became a regular in season 2.
From ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ sweetheart to tabloid regular
Plato rose to stardom in Diff’rent Strokes and was a regular in the teen magazines of the day, but the pressures of teen fame took a toll, as she became addicted to drugs and alcohol. In 1984, she married musician Lanny Lambert, and the couple had a son, Tyler, that year. Plato wanted her pregnancy to be written into the show, but the writers were hesitant to do so, and the combination of her unexpected pregnancy and increasingly high-profile drug use led to her being fired at the end of the show’s sixth season.
Plato made a few guest appearances during Diff’rent Strokes’ final two seasons, and by the time the show was canceled in 1986, she was starting to decline. The late ’80s were marred by ongoing personal dramas, as Plato lost much of her money to a shady accountant and when she divorced her husband in 1990, she lost custody of her son.
Like many child stars, Plato struggled to find her footing as an adult. Desperate to shed her teen-queen image and make back some of the money she’d lost, Plato appeared in Playboy in 1989 and starred in a string of B-movies including Prime Suspect (1989), Bikini Beach Race (1992), Lethal Cowboy (1995), Millenium Day (1995), Compelling Evidence (1995) and Blade Boxer (1997). In 1992, she became one of the first actresses to appear in a video game when she starred in Night Trap. Many of these roles featured gratuitous nudity and violence, and Plato wasn’t able to become a movie star or find another successful TV role.
Crime, softcore movies and looking back
Dana Plato’s struggles grew increasingly bleak throughout the ’90s. She had a broken engagement to director Fred Potts, and her second marriage to producer Scotty Gelt in 1996 was annulled. Plato then became engaged to her manager, Robert Menchaca. During this period, she lived in a motor home and worked odd jobs. At one point, she worked as a cashier at a dry cleaner, and would occasionally be recognized by customers, who noted how friendly and down to earth she seemed.
In 1991, in an act of desperation, Plato infamously robbed a Las Vegas video store, making out with just $164. After she fled, the store’s clerk called 9-1-1 and said in disbelief, “I’ve just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes.” Plato ultimately turned herself in and she was arrested, but got out on bail. She continued to have run-ins with the law, and was arrested again the next year for forging a Valium prescription.
Even after her legal troubles, Plato continued to act on occasion, but her projects during this time, among them a softcore movie titled (what else?) Different Strokes and the indie film Desperation Boulevard (both 1998), took advantage of her fallen child star image. Plato’s final films were Silent Scream (1999), a horror movie, and Pacino Is Missing, a mob movie in which she had a small role and which was released in 2002, three years after her death.
In a 1999 interview with Femme Fatales magazine, Plato had a sense of humor about the less-than-stellar quality of her work post-Diff’rent Strokes, saying, “These were awful movies. I didn’t know anything about them when I did the contracts. Thank God these are hard for you to find.” The troubled actress also spoke wistfully about her teen stardom. “I’ve lost a few cards and one of them was an ace,” she said, adding, “Oh, I’m not a star, but I have done a number of films and worked with some great people. When I was younger, I really earned where I was then. People would expect me at auditions. I didn’t even have to submit photos. If I didn’t show up, they’d call me and say, ‘Dana, where are you?’ Now I can’t even get an audition.”
Dana Plato’s tragic final days
In 1999, Plato appeared on The Howard Stern Show, where she spoke candidly about her drug use and arrests, and claimed she’d been sober for a decade—a claim Stern and many of his listeners didn’t believe. It would be her final interview, as the next day, she was found dead of an overdose. Her overdose was initially believed to be accidental, but later ruled to be a suicide.
Over 25 years later, Dana Plato’s death remains a potent example of the pain that can come with child stardom, and her overdose at 34 stands as one of classic TV’s greatest tragedies. Unfortunately, the tragedy didn’t end there: Shortly before the anniversary of her death in 2010, Plato’s son, Tyler, died by suicide. Tyler struggled with addiction like his famous mom, and was just 14 when she passed. Plato’s death had a profound impact on her son, and it’s heartbreakingly clear that her trauma was passed down to her only child.
Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, who played Plato’s adopted brothers, also dealt with their share of personal issues and became tabloid fodder after Diff’rent Strokes went off the air, leading people to say there was a curse on the stars of the show. Like Plato, Coleman died prematurely, succumbing to a brain hemorrhage at 42 in 2010.
The sadness of Dana Plato’s story cannot be understated, and while Diff’rent Strokes remains highly nostalgic, it’s impossible to watch the sitcom today without recognizing the poignance of a bright young star who burned out far too soon.
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