"Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" Gary Coleman dead at 42

Gary Coleman, the adorable, pint-sized child star of the smash 1970s TV sitcom Diff'rent Strokes who spent the rest of his life struggling on Hollywood's D-list, died on Friday after suffering a brain haemorrhage. He was 42.
Coleman was taken off life support and died with family and friends at his side, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said.
He suffered the brain haemorrhage on Wednesday at his Utah home. Frank said Coleman was hospitalised because of an accident at the home, but she had no further details.
Coleman's family, in a statement read by his brother-in-law Shawn Price, said information would be released shortly about his death.
Best remembered for Diff'rent Strokes character Arnold Jackson and his "Whatchu talkin' 'bout?" catchphrase, Coleman chafed at his permanent association with the show but also tried to capitalise on it through reality shows and other TV appearances.
His adult life was marked with legal, financial and health troubles, suicide attempts and even a 2003 run for California governor.
"I want to escape that legacy of Arnold Jackson," he told The New York Times during his gubernatorial run. "I'm someone more. It would be nice if the world thought of me as something more."
A statement from the family said he was conscious and lucid until midday on Thursday, when his condition worsened and he slipped into unconsciousness. Coleman was then placed on life support.
"It's unfortunate. It's a sad day," said Todd Bridges, who played Coleman's older brother, Willis, on Diff'rent Strokes.
Diff'rent Strokes debuted on NBC in 1978 and drew most of its laughs from Coleman, then a tiny 10-year-old with sparkling eyes and perfect comic timing.
He played the younger of two African-American brothers adopted by a wealthy white man. Race and class relations became topics on the show as much as the typical trials of growing up.
"He was the reason we were such a big hit," co-star Charlotte Rae, who played the family's housekeeper on the show, said in an email. "He was the centrepiece and we all surrounded him. He was absolutely enchanting, adorable, funny and filled with joy which he spread around to millions of people all over the world."
Diff'rent Strokes lasted six seasons on NBC and two on ABC; it lives on thanks to DVDs and YouTube. But its equally enduring legacy became the troubles in adulthood of its former child stars.
In 1989, Bridges was acquitted of attempted murder in the shooting of a drug dealer. The then 24-year-old Bridges testified he became depressed and turned to drugs after Diff'rent Strokes was cancelled.
Dana Plato, who played the boys' white, teenage sister, pleaded guilty in 1991 to a robbery charge. She died in 1999 of an overdose of painkiller and muscle relaxer. The medical examiner's office ruled the death a suicide.
"It's sad that I'm the last kid alive from the show," Bridges said.
Singer Janet Jackson, who appeared on several episodes of Diff'rent Strokes, tweeted that, "I want to remember him as the fun, playful, adorable and affectionate man he was. He has left a lasting legacy. I know he is finally at peace."
Coleman was born February 8, 1968, in Zion, Illinois, near Chicago.
His short stature added to his child-star charm but stemmed from a serious health problem, kidney failure. He got his first of at least two transplants at age five and required dialysis. Even as an adult, his height reached only 1.2 metres.
In a 1979 Los Angeles Times profile, his mother, Sue Coleman, said he had always been a ham. He acted in some commercials before he was signed by TAT, the production company that created Diff'rent Strokes.
After the show was cancelled, Coleman continued to get credits for TV guest shots and other small roles over the years, but he never regained more than a shadow of his old popularity. At one point he worked as a security guard.
Coleman's health problems went beyond kidney failure. Last autumn he had heart surgery complicated by pneumonia, said his Utah lawyer Randy Kester. In February, he suffered a seizure on the set of The Insider.
Legal disputes also dogged him. In 1989, when Coleman was 21, his mother filed a court request trying to gain control of her son's $6 million fortune, saying he was incapable of handling his affairs. He said the move "obviously stems from her frustration at not being able to control my life."
In a 1993 television interview, he said he had twice tried to kill himself by overdosing on pills.
He moved to Utah in 2005, and according to a tally in early 2010, officers were called to assist or intervene with Coleman more than 20 times in the following years. They included a call where Coleman said he had taken dozens of Oxycontin pills and "wanted to die."
Some of the disputes involved his wife, Shannon Price, whom he met on the set of the 2006 comedy Church Ball and married in 2007.
Coleman remained estranged from his parents, Sue and Willie Coleman, who said they learned about his hospitalisation and death from media reports.
Sue Coleman said she wanted to reconcile and had been patiently waiting for her son to be ready.
"One of the things that I had prayed for was that nothing like this would happen before we could sit with Gary and Shannon and say, 'We're here and we love you,"' Sue Coleman said. "We just didn't want to push him."
She would not discuss the cause of the estrangement.