DEAD IN HOLLYWOOD: BEHIND THE SIGN (ISSUE 20)
20 Tinseltown Tinglers coming soon…
Dana Plato (November 7, 1964 - May 8, 1999)
Actress Dana Plato is known playing the role of Kimberly Drummond on the TV show “Diff'rent Strokes,” from 1978 to 1986. After leaving “Diff'rent Strokes,” Plato attempts to establish herself as a working actress, with mixed success. “Diff'rent Strokes” debuts on NBC in 1978, becoming an immediate hit. The show features Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain), a wealthy white widower in New York City who adopts two black boys after their parents' deaths. Plato plays Kimberly, Drummond's teenage daughter. During her years on “Diff'rent Strokes,” Plato struggles with drug and alcohol problems. She admits to drinking alcohol, and using cannabis and cocaine, and she suffers an overdose of diazepam when she is only 14. On May 7, 1999, the day before she dies, Plato appears on “The Howard Stern Show.” She speaks about her life, discussing her financial problems and past run-ins with the law. She admits to being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, but claims she has been sober for more than 10, and is not using any drugs. Callers to the show insult her and question her sobriety. The next day, Plato and her husband are returning to California and stop off at her husband’s mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma, for a Mother's Day visit. Plato goes to lie down inside her Winnebago motorhome parked outside the house, where she dies of an overdose of the painkiller Lortab and the muscle-relaxant Soma. Her death is eventually ruled a suicide. Her son kills himself almost exactly eleven years to the day after Plato's death.
