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Dana Plato

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RIPGC (talk | contribs) at 05:03, 8 August 2010 (should be factual and mindful of family. died of overdose and ruled a suicide, not died of a suicide. Can 100% say it was overdose, but suicide is a judgment, not a fact). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Dana Plato
File:Dana Plato.jpg
Born
Dana Michelle Strain
OccupationActress
Years active1971–1999
Spouse
Lanny Lambert
​
(m. 1984⁠–⁠1990)​

Dana Michelle Plato (November 7, 1964 – May 8, 1999)[1] was an American actress notable for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond in the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Plato's career declined after her departure from the show, with appearances in low-budget films including softcore pornography. She had longstanding personal problems and she died on May 8, 1999 by overdosing on prescription medication, which was declared as a suicide.[2][3]

Childhood

Plato was born Dana Michelle Strain on November 7, 1964 in Maywood, California, to Linda Strain, an unwed 16-year-old, who was already caring for an 18-month-old. Linda Strain put her infant daughter Dana up for adoption. Dean (August 16, 1926 - February 24, 1997) and Florine "Kay" Plato (December 27, 1938 - January 2, 1988)[4] adopted the child in June 1965 and raised her in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County. Her adoptive parents divorced when she was three.[5]

Career in television and film

Kay Plato began taking Dana to auditions when she was very young. By the age of seven, Plato 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. According to Plato, her mother vetoed both jobs, either fearing Plato would be typecast, or subjected to unsavory subject matter.[6] Exorcist author/screenwriter William Peter Blatty 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.

Plato made her film debut in 1977, at the age of thirteen in Return to Boggy Creek. Other credits include California Suite, High School U.S.A. and Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Plato was a trained and accomplished figure skater. At one point she was training for a possible Olympic team spot (she later claimed that she qualified for the team), and won what would become her most famous acting role. According to Plato, her mother decided she should cut back on her skating to focus on her portrayal of Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes.

Diff'rent Strokes

Main article: Diff'rent Strokes

In 1978, Diff'rent Strokes debuted on NBC. The show concerned Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain), a wealthy white widower in New York City who adopted two young black boys after their parents died. Plato played Kimberly, the teenage daughter of Drummond and the sister of the two adopted boys, Willis (Todd Bridges) and Arnold (Gary Coleman). She was the oldest, Willis was second, and Arnold was the third. The show was an immediate hit.

Plato appeared on the show until 1984. During that year, she became pregnant by her boyfriend, a musician named Lanny Lambert. The producers of Diff'rent Strokes did not feel that a pregnancy would fit the show's wholesome image, so Plato was let go. 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 her character was written out. Plato actually returned for several appearances during the show's final season, which appeared on ABC, including an episode (Plato's final appearance in the series) in which Kimberly suffers the effects of bulimia.

Career after Diff'rent Strokes

After leaving Diff'rent Strokes in 1984, 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 June 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.

In 1992, Plato was one of the first celebrities to star in a video game. The game, Night Trap, was not a great success, but is considered a pioneering title as it was the first game to use live actors, specifically a well known personality (Plato).[7] It was one of the first video game titles to have mature content and attracted controversy due to its depiction of violence.[8] The controversy eventually led to the creation of the ESRB.[9]

She acquired several tattoos, including a dove on the back of her left shoulder, a winged fairy and a star above her groin, and flowers on her feet.[10]

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 film is 1997'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 it was not considered hardcore pornography.[11] Plato would appear in only one more film.

Personal life

File:Dana Plato mugshot.jpg
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 admitted to drinking and using recreational drugs during her years on Diff'rent Strokes.[5]

In December 1983, Plato moved in with rock guitarist Lanny Lambert; the couple married in April 1984. On January 2, 1988, Plato's adoptive mother, Kay Plato, died, aged 49, from scleroderma. During the same week, Plato and Lambert separated. The couple divorced in March 1990, with Lambert being awarded custody of their only child Tyler Edward (July 2, 1984[12] - May 6, 2010), with Plato having visitation rights. During this time, Plato posed nude for Playboy.[5]

In 1991, Plato ended up in Las Vegas with no work. She took a job at a dry-cleaning store to support herself. On Feb. 28, she entered a video store, produced a gun, and demanded the money from the register. The clerk called 911 saying "I've just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff'rent Strokes". Fifteen minutes after the robbery, Plato returned to the scene and was immediately arrested. The gun was only a pellet gun and the robbery netted Plato $164.[13] Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton posted her $13,000 bail.[14] Plato was given five years' probation. 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. 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 a drug program immediately thereafter.

Following her appearance in the erotic film: 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, although she later recanted. It was reported that Plato showed up drunk for the magazine's cover shoot.[15]

In her interview with Howard Stern, Plato mentioned that the traumatic events of her mother's death and her husband leaving her took place during the course of only a week. In desperation, she signed over power of attorney to an accountant who absconded with the majority of her money, leaving her with no more than $150,000. She claimed that the accountant was never found, despite an exhaustive search, and had also stolen more than $11 million of other people's money.[6] Just before her death, she and her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, were living in a recreation vehicle in Navarre, Florida.[14]

Final interview and death

On May 7, 1999, Plato appeared on The Howard Stern Show, where she told Stern and Robin Quivers that she was engaged to 28-year-old Robert Menchaca, and that he was managing her career. She was frank about her life, discussing her financial problems and past run-ins with the law. She admitted to being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, but claimed that she had been sober for more than 10 years by that point, and was not using any drugs, with the exception of prescribed painkillers due to discomfort and pain from the recent extraction of her wisdom teeth. Many of her callers called her everything from a "has been" to an addict. She was referred to by one caller as an "ex-con lesbian drug addict with mental problems". This provoked a defiant Plato, as she offered to take a drug test on the air (and even placed a large wager on the results of the test to one particularly doubtful caller). Some callers, however, as well as Stern himself, came to Plato's defense by consoling and complimenting her.[6]

After the first three negative calls, a caller named Julie told Plato that she looked and sounded great, and could not fathom why people were attacking her the way they were, and although they were cruel to her, she was supportive. Plato wept while offering her gratitude, as well to a later caller who claimed to be a recovering addict, and told her that he believed everything she said. Other callers asked her relatively "neutral" (mostly Diff'rent Strokes related) questions, such as, "What happened to your kid?" "Did Todd (Bridges) break your arm (in a playful brawl gone wrong) on the set of Diff'rent Strokes?", "Have you ever had the opportunity of seeing Janet Jackson change during the taping of Diff'rent Strokes?" and, "I need a date with Dana!" at which Plato laughed. Stern later mentioned that she was scheduled to appear at a concert event, The Expo of the Extreme, in Chicago two weeks after the interview.[6]

The next day, Plato and Menchaca were returning to California. The couple stopped at Menchaca's mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma for a Mother's Day visit.[5] Plato went to lie down inside her recreational vehicle parked outside the house and subsequently died of an overdose from Vanadom (Soma) and Lortab. Her death at the age of 34 was eventually ruled a suicide.[16] Her body was cremated.[17]

Son's death

Almost 11 years to the day of Dana Plato's death, on May 6, 2010, Plato's son Tyler Lambert died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at age 25.[18] His grandmother, Joni Richardson, stated that Lambert was experimenting with both drugs and alcohol, which may have contributed to his suicide.[19]

Filmography

Film
Year Film Role Notes
1989 Prime Suspect Diana Masters
1992 Bikini Beach Race J.D.
The Sounds of Silence
1995 Millenium Day
Compelling Evidence Dana Fields
Lethal Cowboy Elizabeth
1997 Tiger Andrea Baker
Blade Boxer Rita Direct-to-video release
1998 Desperation Boulevard Dana Plato
Different Strokes Jill Martin
1999 Silent Scream Prosecuting Attorney
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1975 The Six Million Dollar Man Girl Episode: "The Bionic Woman"
Beyond the Bermuda Triangle Wendy Television movie
1976–1980 Family Mary Beth Sanders
Debbie 		Episodes: "Home Movies"
"Letting Go"
1978 What Really Happened to the Class of '65? Episode: "The Most Likely to Succeed"
1978–1986 Diff'rent Strokes Kimberly Drummond 142 episodes
1979 The Facts of Life Kimberly Drummond Episode: "Rough Housing"
1981 A Step in Time Television movie
1982 Walt Disney World's 10th Anniversary Daughter Television special
1983 High School U.S.A. Cara Ames Television movie
1984 The Love Boat Patty Springer Episode: "Paying the Piper/Baby Sister/Help Wanted"
1985 Growing Pains Lisa Episode: "Mike's Madonna Story"

References

  1. ^ According to The Smoking Gun, Oklahoma authorities gave Plato's date of birth as November 1, 1963
  2. ^ "Dana Plato, 34, Star of 'Diff'rent Strokes'". New York Times. May 8, 1999. Retrieved 2008-04-05. The actress Dana Plato, a former child star on the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, died here on Saturday at the home of her fiance's parents. She was 34. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. ^ Deseret News report on Plato's death ruled a suicide
  4. ^ As per Social Security Death Index website
  5. ^ a b c d Gliatto, Tom (1999-05-24). "Little Girl Lost". People. 51 (19). ISSN 0093-7673.
  6. ^ a b c d Dana Plato's final interview with Howard Stern
  7. ^ "MobyGames Page on Night Trap". MobyGames. Retrieved 2010-08-02.
  8. ^ Slaven, Andy (2002). Video Game Bible, 1985-2002. Trafford Publishing. p. 297. ISBN 1-553-69731-6.
  9. ^ A.V. Club; Klosterman, Chuck (2009). Inventory: 16 Films Featuring Manic Pixie Dream Girls, 10 Great Songs Nearly Ruined by Saxophone, and 100 More Obsessively Specific Pop-Culture Lists. Simon and Schuster. p. 91. ISBN 1-416-59473-6.
  10. ^ "Dana Plato." The Smoking Gun. 2 and 3. Retrieved on September 27, 2009.
  11. ^ The New York Times description of Different Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jill...and Jill
  12. ^ California Birth Index 1905-1995
  13. ^ Sporkin, Elizabeth (1991-03-25). "Diff'rent Strokes, Fallen Stars". People. 35 (11).
  14. ^ a b The Death of Dana Plato at Morbidly Hollywood
  15. ^ Dana Plato's and the Diff'rent Strokes Curse
  16. ^ O'Neill, Anne-Marie (1999-06-07). "Seeking Serenity". People. 51 (20).
  17. ^ Benoit, Tod (2009). Where Are They Buried?: How Did They Die? Fitting Ends and Final Resting Places of the Famous, Infamous, and Noteworthy. Black Dog Publishing. p. 211. ISBN 1-579-12822-X.
  18. ^ "Dana Plato's son dies at age 25". Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  19. ^ Messer, Lesley (2010-05-13). "Son of the Late Dana Plato Commits Suicide". people.com. Retrieved 31 May 2010.

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