Dana Michelle Plato (née Strain; November 7, 1964 – May 8, 1999) was an American actress. An influential teen idol of the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was best known for playing the role of Kimberly Drummond on the NBC/ABC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986).
Plato was born to a teen mother and was adopted as an
infant. She was raised in the San Fernando Valley and was an accomplished
figure skater before acting. Her acting career began with numerous commercial
appearances, and her television debut came at the age of 10 with a brief
appearance on the television series The Six Million Dollar Man (1975). Plato
subsequently appeared in the horror films Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and
Return to Boggy Creek (1977).
Plato's breakthrough feature was the Academy Award-winning
film California Suite (1978), in which she played Jenny Warren. She earned
widespread recognition and acclaim for playing Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent
Strokes. The role also earned Plato nominations for a Young Artist Award for
Best Young Actress in a Comedy Series and two TV Land Awards for Best
Quintessential Non-Traditional Family. Following Diff'rent Strokes, she worked
sporadically in independent films and B movies. Plato was married twice; she
had a child in 1984 during her marriage to guitarist Lanny Lambert.
Plato struggled with substance abuse for most of her life.
She was arrested in 1991 for robbing a video store, and again the following
year for forging a drug prescription. On May 8, 1999, at age 34, Plato was found
dead in her motor home from an overdose of prescription drugs. Her death was
initially considered accidental, but later ruled a suicide. Her personal life,
in retrospect, has been described as a "tragedy".
Early life
Dana Plato was born Dana Michelle Strain on November 7,
1964, in Maywood, California, to Linda Strain, a teenager who was already
caring for an 18-month-old child. In June 1965, the seven-month-old Dana was
adopted by Dean Plato, who owned a trucking company, and his wife Florine "Kay" Plato. She was raised in
the San Fernando Valley. When she was three, her adoptive parents divorced and
she lived with her mother.
At a very young age, Plato began attending auditions with
her mother, and at seven years old had appeared in over 100 television
commercials. Plato was also an accomplished figure skater. During her years on
Diff'rent Strokes, Plato struggled with drug and alcohol problems; she admitted
to drinking alcohol, using cannabis and cocaine, and suffered an overdose of diazepam
when she was aged 14.
In 1995, during an appearance on The Marilyn Kagen Show
alongside co-star Todd Bridges, she spoke of her childhood with her mother,
stating: "My mother made sure that I
was normal. The only thing that she did, the mistake she made, was that she
kept me in a plastic bubble. So, I didn't learn about reality and life
skills." Kagen suggested that Plato may have been used for a free meal
ticket, which Plato denied, explaining that her mother's ways were so that she
would not become a prima donna.
Career
Plato made her television acting debut at the age of 10,
making a brief appearance on the NBC television show The Six Million Dollar
Man. She then starred in the 1975 made for television film Beyond the Bermuda
Triangle. Plato made her film debut at the age of 13, appearing as Sandra
Phalor in the horror film Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), for which she was
uncredited, and also starred as Evie Joe in the horror film Return to Boggy
Creek in the same year; both films were received negatively by critics. Better
received was the family-comedy film California Suite (1978), in which Plato
played Jenny Warren; the film was also a commercial success, and earned
accolades from the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
When Plato made a brief appearance on The Gong Show, she was
spotted by a producer who helped cast her as Kimberly Drummond—the older sister
of adopted brothers Arnold and Willis Jackson—on the NBC sitcom Diff'rent
Strokes. The series debuted in 1978 and became an immediate hit. Plato appeared
regularly on the show throughout its run, notably top-billed for four years.
She was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her work on the program, and
also was part of two TV Land Award nominations given to its cast. In 1984,
following the birth of her son Tyler, Plato was dismissed from her starring
role due to both that and struggles in her personal life, which producers felt
would negatively impact their "wholesome
family comedy". She made a one episode appearance on season 8 episode
12 of "The Love Boat". Thereafter,
Plato appeared recurringly on Diff'rent Strokes from 1985 to 1986, the show's
end; in season 8, the episode which aired on January 17, 1986, was Plato's
final appearance on the show, which showed her character suffering from
bulimia. CBC News described her performance in the episode as a "series highpoint".
In 1981, Plato appeared in the television special A Step in
Time, which earned her a second Young Artist Award nomination. In 1983, she
starred in the television film High School U.S.A. as Cara Ames, alongside
Diff'rent Strokes co-star Todd Bridges, who played Otto Lipton. In spite of the
film being met with a mixed response from critics and viewers alike, it gained
popularity at the time of its premiere, particularly for its cast. Plato
attempted to establish herself as a serious actress, but found it difficult to
achieve success. She had breast implants and modeled for a June 1989 Playboy
pictorial. She also started taking roles in such B movies as Bikini Beach Race
(1989) and Lethal Cowboy (1992). In 1990 she made a brief attempt at a musical
career, sponsored by producer Howie Rice. She recorded six tracks with
songwriter/producer Daniel Liston Keller at Paramount Studios in Hollywood,
California, but the recordings were shelved and not released.
In 1992, Plato starred in the video game Night Trap,
becoming one of the first celebrities to appear in a video game. She was eager
to work on the game, and Rob Fulop—one of the designers of Night Trap—said that
he and Plato had enjoyed working together. She made little effort to hide the
fact that the project was a step-down compared to her previous career ventures.
The game was a moderate success, but is considered a pioneering title because
it was the first to use live actors. Night Trap received mixed to negative
reviews upon release, and in retrospective has continued to polarize critics
and audiences. It is best remembered for the controversy it created over the
violence and sexuality, along with that surrounding Mortal Kombat, which had
eventually led to the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board
(ESRB).
Toward the end of her career, Plato chose roles that were
erotic; she appeared nude in Prime Suspect (1989) and Compelling Evidence
(1995), and in the softcore erotic drama Different Strokes: The Story of Jack
and Jill...and Jill (1998), the title of which was changed after filming in
order to tie it to Plato's past. Following her appearance in the film, in the
same year, Plato appeared in a cover story of the lesbian lifestyle-magazine
Girlfriends.
Plato's last works include Desperation Boulevard (1998), in
which she appears as herself and which appears to be based on her life; Silent
Scream (1999), in which she appears as Emma Jones; and Pacino Is Missing
(2002), which was released after her death, in which she appears as an
attorney.
Personal life
In December 1983, Plato moved in with her boyfriend, rock
guitarist Lanny Lambert. The couple married on April 24, 1984, and their only
child, Tyler Edward Lambert, was born on July 2, 1984. When it was revealed
that she was pregnant, she was written out of Diff'rent Strokes. Her co-star
Conrad Bain revealed that she was happy about her baby, stating in an interview
with People magazine: "She
deliberately got pregnant while doing the series, when I spoke to her about it,
she was enthusiastic about having done that... [saying that] 'When I get the
baby, I will never be alone again.'"
Plato separated from Lambert in January 1988, the same week
her mother died of scleroderma. In desperation, she signed over power of
attorney to an accountant who disappeared with the majority of her money,
leaving her with less than $150,000. She claimed the accountant was never found
nor prosecuted despite an exhaustive search, and that he had also stolen more
than $11 million of other people's money. During her March 1990 divorce, Plato
lost custody of her son to Lambert and was given visitation rights. She
thereafter became engaged to Fred Potts, a filmmaker, but the romance ended.
She was later married to actor and producer Scott Atkins (Scotty Gelt) in
Vancouver for one month before the marriage was annulled. Before her death,
Plato was engaged to her manager Robert Menchaca, with whom she lived in a motor
home in Navarre, Florida.
On February 28, 1991, Plato entered a video store, produced
a pellet gun, and demanded the money in the cash register. After she left with
the money, the clerk called 9-1-1 and said,
"I've just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff'rent
Strokes." Approximately fifteen minutes after the robbery, Plato
returned to the scene and was immediately arrested. She had stolen $164.
Entertainer Wayne Newton posted her $13,000 bail, and Plato was given five
years' probation. She subsequently became a subject of the national debate
surrounding troubled child stars, particularly given the difficulties of her
Diff'rent Strokes co-stars Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman.
In January 1992, Plato was arrested a second time, for
forging a prescription for diazepam. She served thirty days in jail for
violating the terms of her probation and immediately entered a drug rehabilitation
program. Plato later moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where she struggled with
poverty and unemployment. At one point she worked at a dry-cleaning store,
where customers reported being impressed by her lack of airs.
On May 7, 1999, the day before she died, Plato appeared on
The Howard Stern Show. She spoke 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 she had been sober for more than ten
years by that point and was not using any drugs, with the exception of
prescribed painkillers due to the recent extraction of her wisdom teeth. Many
callers to the show insulted Plato and questioned her sobriety, which angered and
provoked her, and she defiantly offered to take a drug test on the air. Some
callers, as well as host Howard Stern, came to Plato's defense, though Stern
also referred to himself as "an
enabler" and sarcastically offered Plato drugs. Although she allowed a
hair to be cut for the test, Stern later claimed she asked for it back after the
interview.
Death
On May 8, 1999, Plato and Menchaca were returning to
California and stopped at Menchaca's mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma, for a
Mother's Day visit. Later on in the visit, Plato said that she felt unwell and
took a few doses of a hydrocodone / acetaminophen painkiller (Lortab), along
with the muscle-relaxant carisoprodol (Soma), and went to lie down with
Menchaca inside her Winnebago motor home, which was parked outside the house.
Upon waking up, Menchaca and their family discovered that Plato had died in her
sleep – initially assumed an accidental overdose but later ruled a suicide
based on Plato's long history of substance use. Plato's body was cremated and
her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
In 2000, Fox broadcast a television movie based on Plato,
titled After Diff'rent Strokes: When the Laughter Stopped. The film was focused
on her life and work after the show, including her death. It featured actors
who at the time were unknown, as well as Bridges, who made a cameo appearance.
In 2006, NBC aired the television film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized
Story of Diff'rent Strokes, which was based on the lives of the child stars who
had worked on the show. At the end of the film, where Bridges and Coleman
appear, they stand near Plato's grave.
On May 6, 2010, two days before the eleventh anniversary of
Plato's death, her son Tyler died by suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot
wound to the head. He was 25 years old.
On November 7, 2019, on what would have been Plato's 55th
birthday, Bridges commented on Twitter about their friendship, leaving a tribute
to Plato: "You were the one person I
could always talk to. You were one of my best friends. I will never forget you
and love you forever. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dana Plato R.I.P you are free my
friend."
Filmography
Film
1977 Exorcist II:
The Heretic Sandra Phalor Uncredited role
1977 Return to
Boggy Creek Evie Joe
1978 California
Suite Jenny Warren
1989 Prime
Suspect Diana Masters
1992 Bikini Beach
Race J.D.
1992 The Sounds
of Silence Deborah Nichols
1995 Compelling
Evidence Dana Fields
1995 Lethal
Cowboy Elizabeth
1995 Millennium
Day
1997 Tiger Andrea Baker
1997 Blade Boxer Rita Direct-to-video
film
1997 Different
Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jill...and Jill Jill
Martin
1998 Desperation
Boulevard Herself
1999 Silent
Scream Emma Jones
2002 Pacino Is
Missing Prosecuting Attorney Posthumous release
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1975 The Six
Million Dollar Man Girl Episode: "The Bionic Woman"
1975 Beyond the
Bermuda Triangle Wendy Television film
1976 Family Mary Beth Sanders Episode: "Home Movie"
1978 What Really
Happened to the Class of '65? Episode:
"The Most Likely to Succeed"
1978 The Gong
Show Herself Game show
1978–86 Diff'rent
Strokes Kimberly Drummond 140 episodes
Main cast (seasons 1–6); recurring role (seasons 7–8)
1979 Hello, Larry 3 episodes
Guest star (season 1–2)
1979 The Facts of
Life Episode: "Rough Housing"
1979–80 CHiPs Dana Plato 2
episodes
Guest star (season 3)
1980 Family Debbie Episode:
"Letting Go"
1980 ABC
Afterschool Specials Daisy
Dallenger Episode: "Schoolboy Father"
1981 A Step in
Time Herself Television film
1982 The Family
Life Naomi Episode "The Kids are
Moving In"
1982 Walt Disney
World's 10th Anniversary Daughter Television special
1983 High School
U.S.A. Cara Ames Television film
1984 The Love
Boat Patty Springer Episode: "Paying
the Piper/Baby Sister/Help Wanted"
1985 Growing
Pains Lisa Episode: "Mike's
Madonna Story"
Video games
Year Title Role Notes
1992 Night Trap Kelli Medd Lead role
Accolades
1981 Young Artist
Awards Best Young Actress in a
Television Special A Step in
Time Nominated
1983 Young Artist
Awards Best Young Actress in a
Comedy Series Diff'rent Strokes Nominated
2003 TV Land
Awards Quintessential
Non-Traditional Family (shared with cast) Nominated
2004 TV Land
Awards Quintessential Non-Traditional
Family Nominated
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