WAS GARY MURDERED?
Was Diff’rent Strokes star Gary Coleman MURDERED by ‘depraved’ family member as doc delves into actor’s death
Tragic Gary was nicknamed 'God's punching bag'
WITH his cherubic looks and megawatt personality, Gary Coleman was the standout child star of his generation.
Fans were devastated when the Seventies favourite, who played Arnold Jackson in US sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, died aged 42 after a fall in his kitchen.
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And they were stunned when the finger of suspicion fell on Gary’s ex-wife, who he still lived with.
Frantic Shannon Price says that she found Coleman lying on the kitchen floor at their home in Utah, his head in a pool of blood.
In a breathless call to 911, she told the operator: “I can’t be here with all this blood.
“I’m gagging . . . I don’t wanna be traumatised right now.”
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Shannon then failed to go to hospital with Gary, and pulled the plug on his life support machine two days after his fall — despite his wishes to be kept alive for two weeks in the event of a medical catastrophe.
I would never hurt my husband ever. I slapped him
Shannon Price
a couple of times, I mean nothing major. People smack each other. If you deny it you’re crazy
Now a new documentary explores what happened to Gary on the day he was found fatally injured in May 2010.
Shannon is as defiant as ever, insisting to the programme makers: “I would never hurt my husband . . . ever.”
‘Sad ending to legacy’
But she goes on to admit previously hitting Coleman, who was just 4ft 8in, saying: “I slapped him a couple of times, I mean nothing major, nothing, like, red flag.
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“People smack each other, they hit each other. People do it.
“If you deny it, you’re crazy.
Charlotte Rae stars as Mrs Garrett alongside Gary Coleman on Diff’rent Strokes
“The fact people say, ‘She murdered Gary. She pushed him down the stairs’. That really hurts me.”
In the documentary for streaming service Peacock, which is simply titled Gary, the actor’s lawyer tells how the couple had a “tumultuous relationship” as Price mocked her husband’s size, while friends claim there are still “questions to be answered” about his death.
One said Shannon was “depraved” after she sold a picture of her husband on his deathbed — a move she defended by saying “people needed to see what he went through”.
Police investigated Gary’s fall and found no wrongdoing, while a coroner ruled it an “accident”.
But Shannon has felt repeatedly forced to deny playing any part in it.
The suspicion and drama surrounding the actor’s death is a sad ending to the legacy of a man once adored by millions around the world.
Gary was just ten when he won the role of Arnold in NBC show Diff’rent Strokes, playing one of two orphans adopted by a rich white man.
The show attracted guest appearances from the likes of boxer Muhammad Ali, Eighties actor Mr T and then- First Lady Nancy Reagan.
Gary got £75,000 per episode, making him the biggest-earning child actor ever at the time.
But behind all the glitz and glamour, his life was tinged with sadness.
He suffered from congenital kidney disease and his growth was stunted by the medication he took to keep him alive.
Gary had two kidney transplants when he was five and 17, but they failed, and he ultimately spent 25 years on dialysis.
Co-star Todd Bridges claims Gary’s dad Willie pushed him to perform, even when he was sick, telling him: “You’ve got people depending on you.”
When Diff’rent Strokes came to an end in 1986 after an eight-year run, Gary struggled to get work after being pigeon-holed in the role.
He came to hate his immortal catchphrase, ‘What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?’, which he aimed at his screen brother, played by Todd.
Depressed, he vowed never to work in showbusiness again, but things were about to take a darker turn when he sued his mother Sue and father Willie over missing earnings.
‘God’s punching bag’
Coleman discovered a black hole in his finances and suspected his parents and business adviser of mismanagement.
He took the case to court in 1989, and eventually triumphed in the £900,000 lawsuit involving his own mum and dad.
They later tried to place him under a Britney Spears-style conservatorship, which would have given them total control over their son, but a judge dismissed it out of hand.
Best pal Dion Mial tells the show: “Gary felt not only betrayed but completely abandoned by the people who were closest to him.”
Both Willie and Sue have repeatedly denied knowingly misusing the money, with his dad calling Gary’s friend Dion a “demon” in the documentary.
Amid bouts of depression and threats of suicide, in 1997 Gary met Anna Gray, who was working in a Blockbuster store in California, and the pair moved in together.
While they were close, Anna says Gary never had any interest in sex, but “was very romantic and liked to hold hands and kiss and snuggle”.
Acting work had all but dried up and Anna says people treated him like a “penny arcade”, constantly asking him to recite his famous catchphrase.
He also detested being asked for autographs.
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He pleaded no contest in court over a 1998 row with a fan who spotted him working as a security guard in a Californian mall.
The following year, Gary filed for bankruptcy.
His romance with Anna ended and, in 2007, he began dating Shannon Price.
They met when Gary went to Utah to film the movie Church Ball, where she was working as an extra.
He was nudging 40 and she was 22 when they married in 2007 on a remote hilltop in the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada.
The couple hit problems almost immediately and, in an unaired clip from a TV show, Gary accuses Shannon of only being interested in his money.
Shortly after they wed, he was cited for disorderly conduct after a “heated discussion” with her in public.
Sometimes they seemed happy and joking and, on the flip of a dime, they would become raging, yelling, demeaning, disparaging
Gary's lawyer, Randy Kester
The actor’s lawyer, Randy Kester, told producers of the film Gary, due to be released in the UK shortly, that the pair had a “tumultuous” relationship.
And he hinted that he wished the star had cut Shannon out of his life after their split instead of continuing to live with her.
He added: “Sometimes they seemed happy and joking and, on the flip of a dime, they would become raging, yelling, demeaning, disparaging.
“It was every day — her doing something, her creating drama, demeaning his manhood, demeaning his size, sometimes calling him a failure.
“I was always hopeful that he was gonna one day come to me and say, ‘I’m done and I need her gone and out of my life’.
“I was sad for him that he didn’t get to that point.
“There were multiple times Gary and I discussed a restraining order — he just couldn’t deal with it any more.”
Gary had just finished a morning of dialysis in May 2010 when Shannon, who says she was upstairs, asked him to put pizza in the oven.
She tells the documentary she heard a bang and ran downstairs to find the star lying on the kitchen floor with blood seeping from a head injury.
In a chilling 911 call, the operator asks Price to make sure Coleman puts pressure on his wound, but she replies: “No I can’t, it’s all bloody . . . he’s not with it.”
Shannon tells the call handler she suffers from seizures and doesn’t want to be “traumatised right now”.
Gary’s pals question her behaviour, with his ex, Anna Gray, saying: “She was more worried about herself than the person she was calling 911 for.
“I think her actions speak volumes.”
Another close ally, Brandi Buys, said: “Personally, in my opinion, I don’t think that he fell . . . I want to say so much, but I don’t know what I can say without getting sued.”
Best pal Dion pointed out that Coleman “didn’t have that far to fall to create such a significant injury”.
“It just begs question and question,” he added.
“She [Shannon] watched him being loaded in the back of an ambulance and went back into the house.
“Gary was alone.”
In response, Shannon says she believed her husband would be “stitched” up at hospital and sent home, and that she was “not in the right frame of mind” to go with him.
She revealed she had a phone chat with him as he was being treated, in which they said they loved each other — and that she was shocked to later get a call saying that Gary, who had an intracranial haemorrhage, had gone into cardiac arrest.
The actor had paperwork which stated he wanted at least two weeks of care before life support was pulled should he fall seriously ill.
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But Shannon points out it also stated machines could be switched off if nothing could be done.
Recalling the moment she said goodbye to her husband, she said: “I went in there and said everything I needed to say — ‘I love you, I’m going to miss you, you’re the most amazing thing that happened in my life and you really were loved and you were cared about’.
“The decision to take him off life support was the hardest thing I ever had to do.”
Gary’s closest friend Dion was horrified when Shannon sold hospital pictures of him to a US tabloid mag.
He said: “It was one of the most depraved acts I’ve ever seen perpetrated on another human being.
“Throughout his life, Coleman repeatedly referred to himself as ‘God’s punching bag’.
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“Gary lived a life fraught with so many disappointments.
“There were a lot of people that let him down.”
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