Dana Plato

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Dana Plato

Plato and co-star Gary Coleman during the height of her career, playing Kimberly Drummond on the NBC sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes.
Birth name Dana Michelle Plato
Born November 7, 1964
Flag of United States Maywood, California, USA
Died May 8, 1999
Moore, Oklahama
Years active 1971-1999
Notable roles Dana Plato in Diff'rent Strokes

Dana Michelle Plato (November 7, 1964 – May 8, 1999) was an American actress who became famous playing the role of Kimberly Drummond in the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Plato's career slumped after the show, with appearances in low-budget films, including some softcore pornography. She had repeated drug and alcohol problems, eventually leading her to commit suicide on May 8, 1999.

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[edit] Childhood

Plato was born in Maywood, California to Linda Strain, an unwed mother who was 16 at the time of Dana's birth and was already caring for an 18-month-old child. Strain put her infant daughter up for adoption and in June 1965, Dean and Florine "Kay" Plato adopted the child, raising her in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. She attended Sutter Jr. High School in Canoga Park, California.

[edit] Career in television and film

Kay Plato began taking her to auditions when she was very young. By the age of 7, Dana began doing television commercials, reportedly appearing in over 100 spots for companies as diverse as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dole, and Atlantic Richfield. She claimed she was offered two highly sought-after movie roles: the part of possessed child Regan MacNeil in the 1973 film, The Exorcist, and the starring role in Louis Malle's 1978 film, Pretty Baby. Kay Plato, it was said, vetoed both jobs, either fearing her daughter would be typecast, or subjected to unsavory subject matters. Plato herself appears to have been the source for these oft-repeated casting stories. "Exorcist" author William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, said in the book "Former Child Stars: The Story of America's Least Wanted" that he had "no such recollection" of Plato being offered the role of Regan.

Plato made her film debut in Return to Boggy Creek. Other credits include: California Suite and Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Dana trained as a figure skater and was quite accomplished. She was training for a possible Olympic team spot (she claimed, in an interview with Howard Stern, that she qualified for the team). At the same time, however, she won what would become her most famous acting role and, according to Plato, Kay Plato decided she should choose television over figure skating. The role was that of Kimberly Drummond on the sitcom, Diff'rent Strokes.

[edit] Diff'rent Strokes

Main article: Diff'rent Strokes

In 1978, Diff'rent Strokes debuted on NBC. The show concerned a wealthy Caucasian widower in New York who adopted two young black boys after their parents died. Plato played Kimberly, the teenage daughter of businessman Phil Drummond and the older sister of adopted Arnold and Willis. The show was an immediate hit and Plato made up to $100,000 an episode during its peak, even though she was never more than a supporting character (the true star of the show being Gary Coleman).

Plato appeared on the show until 1984. During that year, she got pregnant by her boyfriend, rock musician Lanny Lambert. The producers of Diff'rent Strokes did not feel that a pregnancy would fit the wholesome image of Kimberly Drummond, so Plato was let go from the show. Although rumors of drug use and other "problems on the set" swirled around her dismissal, the producers were adamant that the pregnancy was the only reason Plato's character was written out. Plato actually returned for several appearances during the show's final season, which appeared on ABC.

[edit] Career after Diff'rent Strokes

After leaving Diff'rent Strokes, Plato attempted to establish herself as a serious actress, but found it difficult to step out of the long shadows cast by her sitcom career. After her child was born, she had breast implants and appeared in a 1989 Playboy pictorial, but her career remained in the doldrums. She started taking roles in such B-movies as Bikini Beach Race and Lethal Cowboy while more respectable roles eluded her.

In 1992, Plato was one of the first celebrities to star in a video game. The game, Night Trap, was universally panned by critics and attracted much controversy over a scene of a girl in a nightgown being killed, though in the comedic vein of the entire game. Although it is now seen as a pioneering title, Plato's career took another hit from the attitudes toward the game.

Toward the end of her career, Plato chose roles that could be considered erotic or even softcore pornography. She appeared partially nude in Prime Suspect (1988) and Compelling Evidence (1995), but her most infamous picture is 1998's Different Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jill...and Jill. The movie's title was changed after shooting to tie it to Plato's famous past, but was not connected in any way to the sitcom other than through her involvement. Plato played a lesbian and the film was rated X due to sexual content, but was not considered hardcore pornography. Plato would appear in only one more film before her death.

[edit] Troubled personal life

Plato, arrested in Las Vegas, January 1992, for forging a Valium prescription.
Plato, arrested in Las Vegas, January 1992, for forging a Valium prescription.

Plato began having drug and alcohol problems early in life. At age 14, she overdosed on Valium. She also, by her own admission, drank and used recreational drugs during her years on Diff'rent Strokes.

In 1988, Plato's adoptive mother, Kay, died from a blood disease. Shortly thereafter, her marriage to Lanny Lambert began to fall apart. The couple officially divorced in 1990, with Lambert getting custody of their only child, Tyler (born 1985). She and her mother-in-law, Joni Orii, maintained correspondence. In the summer of 1989, Plato helped promote Orii's weight loss clinic in Tulsa. Also during this time, Plato appeared nude in Playboy.

In 1991, Plato found herself in Las Vegas with no work. She took a job in a dry cleaners to make ends meet. One day, she entered a video store, produced a gun and demanded the money from the register. She was arrested shortly thereafter. Wayne Newton posted her $15,000 bail bond. Plato was given five years' probation. The gun was only a pellet gun and the robbery netted Plato less than $200. She made headlines and became part of the national debate over troubled child stars, particularly given the difficulties of her Diff'rent Strokes co-stars, Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges. Plato's actions were seen by many as a cry for help and she was placed on probation, but in January 1992, she was again arrested, this time for forging a prescription for Valium. She served 30 days in jail for violation of the terms of her probation and entered drug rehab immediately thereafter.

Following her appearance in the movie Different Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jill...and Jill, Plato appeared on the cover of the lesbian lifestyle magazine, Girlfriends, in 1998. She was interviewed by Diane Anderson-Minshall and "came out" as a lesbian. She later refuted that claim, stating that she was merely experimenting. It was reported that Plato showed up drunk for the magazine's cover shoot. [1]

In her interview with Howard Stern, Plato mentioned that she signed power of attorney to an accountant who absconded with the majority of her money, leaving her with no more than $150,000.

Just before her death, she and her fiance, Robert Menchaca, were living in an RV in Navarre, Florida.

[edit] Death

On May 7, 1999, Dana appeared on The Howard Stern Show where she told Stern she was engaged to Menchaca and that he was managing her career. She was frank about her situation, discussing her financial problems and past run-ins with the law. She admitted to being a recovering alcoholic/drug addict, but claimed she had been sober for over ten years. Her speech was quick and some callers accused her of being high, to which Plato defiantly offered to take a drug test on the air. She also got very emotional, even crying when some callers offered her compliments and support. Stern mentioned she was scheduled to appear at a concert event, The Expo of the Extreme, in Chicago two weeks after the interview.

The next day, Plato and Menchaca were returning to California hoping to revive her stagnant career. The couple stopped at Menchaca's mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma for a Mother's Day visit. Plato went to lie down inside her recreational vehicle parked outside the house and subsequently died of an overdose from Vanadom (Soma) and Vicodin. Her death at age 35 was eventually ruled a suicide. However, both Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, both of whom remained friends with Plato after Diff'rent Strokes ended, have said they do not believe she intended to kill herself.

Much confusion remains about her precise age. Oklahoma authorities, presumably taking the information from Plato's Florida driver's license, determined her birthdate to be 1 November 1963, making her 35, while many news sources reported she was born on 7 November 1964. Dana Plato's body was cremated and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] External links

[edit] Interviews & resources

[edit] Memorial sites

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