DANA PLATO: ANOTHER TORTURED CHILD STAR

I was raised in the 1980s, and watching television was the main form of relaxing. This was before cell phones and computers! I remember my first crush I ever had was Dana Plato, who played ther daughter on the hit series "Different Strokes" from 1978 to 1986. Sadly, as with so many younger stars, her life ended sadly.

Dana was also remembered for her troubled life after "Different Strokes" when her career spiraled downward after becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. She was born in Maywood, California on November 7, 1964  to an 16-year-old unmarried teenager who gave her up for adoption. When she was three years old, her adoptive parents divorced and her mother started auditioning her at an early age. At the age of seven, she began doing television commercials for companies as diverse as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dole, and Atlantic Richfield. In 1977 she made her film debut in Return to Boggy Creek. She was also an accomplished figure skater, and at one point she was training for a possible Olympic team spot. 

During this time she was spotted by a producer during a brief appearance on the daytime television's "The Gong Show," and won her role on "Diff'rent Strokes" and the show was an immediate hit. In 1984 she became pregnant by her boyfriend, rock guitarist Lanny Lambert, and the show's producers of felt that a pregnancy would fit the show's wholesome image, so she was let go but returned for several appearances during its final season. The two married in April 1984 but separated in January 1988, a week after her adoptive mother's death. 

After "Diff'rent Strokes" was cancelled, she attempted to establish herself as a serious actress, but found it difficult to step out of the long shadows cast by her sitcom career and ended up taking roles in B-movies such as "Bikini Beach Race" and "Lethal Cowboy." During this time, she also posed for Playboy magazine. In 1991 she ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada unemployed and took a job at a dry-cleaning store. On February 28, she entered a video store, produced a gun, and demanded the money in the register. Approximately 15 minutes after the robbery, she returned to the scene and was immediately arrested. The gun was only a pellet gun and the robbery netted her $164. Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton posted her bail and she 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 arrested again, this time for forging a prescription for Diazepam. She served 30 days in jail for violation of the terms of her probation and immediately entered a drug program. The same year, she 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, and was one of the first video game titles to have mature content and attracted controversy due to its depiction of violence. 

Toward the end of her career, she chose roles that could be considered erotic or even soft-core pornography, appearing partially nude in Prime Suspect (1988) and Compelling Evidence (1995), but her most infamous film was the 1997 pornographic movie Different Strokes: The Story of Jack and Jill...and Jill. On May 7, 1999 she traveled to New York City, New York with her finance Robert Menchaca, where she appeared on "The Howard Stern Show" to talk frankly about her life, including her run-ins with the law, financial problems, and drug and alcohol addictions. She admitted to being a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, but claimed that 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 discomfort and pain from the recent extraction of her wisdom teeth. 

The following day, she and Menchaca were returning to California and stopped by his mother's home in Moore, Oklahoma, for a Mother's Day visit. She went to lie down inside her recreational vehicle parked outside the house and subsequently died of an overdose of the muscle-relaxant Vanadom (Soma) and painkiller Lortab at the age of 34. Her death was ruled a suicide. Tragically, almost 11 years to the day of her death, her son Tyler Lambert committed suicide from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. It is sad that Dana Plato never escaped the horror of being a child star. Dana and her son deserved better...

WHAT A CHARACTER: NEDRA VOLZ

You may ask who the heck is Nedra Volz? If you grew up in the 1980s as I did, then you woud recognize her in many television shows. Born in Montrose, Iowa on June 18, 1908, she began her career in the family tent show, and appeared in vaudeville as a toddler (called "Baby Nedra"). In the early 1930s, Volz was featured vocalist with Cato's Vagabonds, a Des Moines, Iowa, big band that briefly enjoyed national popularity. Cato never made records, but Nedra managed to appear on exactly one 78 side, with Will Osborne's orchestra in 1933.

Beginning with an episode of Good Times in 1975, she became a well-recognized supporting character actress, primarily on television and also in feature films. Nedra often played grandmothers or feisty little old ladies, in 1970s sitcoms such as Alice, Maude and One Day at a Time, after she appeared in two of Norman Lear's summer television series: as Grandma Belle Durbin in A Year at the Top in 1977 and as Bill Macy's housekeeper Pinky Nolan in Hanging In in 1979. In 1978, Volz appeared in the pilot episode of the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati, where she whacked a turntable with her umbrella in protest of the station's format change, and in All In The Family was Edith's spinster relative and unwelcome visitor, Aunt Iola. In 1980, she appeared in several Jack in the Box TV spots as they blew up Jack.

By 1980 she appeared on TV almost weekly, starting with a recurring role as housekeeper Adelaide Brubaker in the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. In 1981 she landed another recurring role as Emma Tisdale on the TV show The Dukes of Hazzard. In the 1982–83 season, Volz was the matriarch in the Filthy Rich, a series spoofing prime-time soap operas of the day. Volz's character Winona "Mother B" Beck, was the discarded first wife of cryogenically frozen Big Guy Beck (Slim Pickens and, after his death, Forrest Tucker), constantly trying to escape from the nursing home to return to the family mansion, Toad Hall. Volz's final series role was as the bail-bonds woman that hired Lee Majors bounty-hunter character on The Fall Guy from 1985 until the series ended in 1986.

In "Mission of Peace", a 1986 episode of The A-Team, she was one of a group of senior citizens forced into asking the team for help. She portrayed the roles of Mrs. Perwinkle and Angelica on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show in 1989. She remained a guest star for on such series as Night Court, Coach, The Commish and Babes into the early 1990s and she continued to act well into her eighties.

In Moving Violations, director Neil Israel allowed her to do many stunts herself, including being lifted into a window and falling head-first onto the floor. Volz's last acting role was in The Great White Hype in 1996. She died on January 20, 2003 of Alzheimer's disease...

THE PASSING SCENE OF 2013

With every passing year there are great talents that sadly have to leave us. Their passing remind of how quick life goes, and even though their deaths are sad to us fans, their memories live on in their wonderful bodies of work. Here are some of the entertainers of classic Hollywood that left us in 2013...

Patty Andrews

PATTY ANDREWS
Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of World War II, died in January. She was 94. Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home. She could also deliver sentimental ballads like "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

PETER O'TOOLE
Peter O'Toole achieved stardom playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for which he received his first Academy Award nomination. He received seven further Oscar nominations – for Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982) and Venus (2006) – and holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a win. He died on December 14 at the age of 81.

JONATHAN WINTERS
Best known for his improv work and characters like Mearth on Mork & Mindy, Winters died on April 11 of natural causes. He was 87. He is survived by two children and five grandchildren. He never made many films, but he had a memorable role in the 1963 comedy classic, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World. His last role was as the voice of Papa Smurf in the cartoon film
Smurfs 2.

MARTA EGGERTH
Marta Eggerth was a singer/actress from "The Silver Age of  Operetta". Many of the 20th century's most famous operetta composers, including Oscar Straus composed works especially for her. She made two movies at MGM, appearing opposite Judy Garland in For Me And My Gal (1942) and Presenting Lily Mars (1943). She died on December 26 at the age of 101.

ROGER EBERT
The famed movie critic died in Chicago on April 4, just two days after announcing on his website that he was taking a "leave of presence" from his career. His death, at age 70, followed years of health problems, including a thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2002 that led to the loss of his voice.

JULIE HARRIS
Julie Harris was a famed icon of the American stage. She won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award. She also appeared in such films as East of Eden (1955) with James Dean, whom she became friends with, and Requiem For A Heavyweight (1962) with Paul Newman. She remained active despite failing health. She died on August 24 of heart failure.

JEANNE COOPER
Soap opera fans were devastated on May 8 when Cooper, who played Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless for nearly four decades, died after a brief, unspecified illness. Her son was actor Corbin Bernsen.

Jean Stapleton

JEAN STAPLETON
The Emmy-winning All in the Family actress, who played Archie Bunker's wife on the series, died of natural causes on May 31. She was 90 years old. Survived by her two children, John and Pamela, she was described by Roseanne Barr as "a great actor whose range was unbelievable, deep, and majestic."

ANNETTE FUNICELLO
The beloved former Mouseketeer passed away at age 70 in early April, after more than two decades of living with multiple sclerosis. She is survived by her second husband, Glen Holt, and kids Gina, Jack Jr., and Jason, her children with first husband Jack Gilardi.

GEORGE JONES
The "He Stopped Loving Her Today" singer died on April 26 at age 81 after a brief hospitalization in Nashville. "My friend, the greatest singer of all time, has passed," country star Brad Paisley said of Jones, survived by his wife and four grown children. "To those who knew him, our lives were full. To those of you who don't: discover him now."

DEANNA DURBIN
One of the most famous child stars of her time, Durbin died at age 91 in late April. Known for box office smashes like Three Smart Girls, First Love, and Spring Parade, she is survived by her son, Peter David, and daughter Jessica.

BONNIE FRANKLIN
The One Day at a Time star died on March 1 at age 69 after a months-long battle with pancreatic cancer. A veteran theater actress and two-time Golden Globe nominee, Franklin is survived by her mother, Claire, and stepchildren Jed and Julie Minoff.

JAMES GANDOLFINI
The Sopranos star died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing with his son Michael in Rome on June 19. Though he was rushed to the emergency room, efforts to resuscitate him failed. Gandolfini is also survived by his wife, Deborah, and their daughter, Liliana. "He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person.

Eleanor Parker

ELEANOR PARKER
The stunning Eleanor Parker was an actress of patrician beauty nicknamed “the woman of a thousand faces” for the range of parts she played, from a terrified prisoner in “Caged” to the icy baroness in “The Sound of Music. She died on December 9 at the age of 91. On a personal note, my Grandfather always said my Grandmother looked like Eleanor Parker.

PATSY SWAYZE
Dancing instructor and mother of Patrick Swayze, Patsy Swayze died in September at the age of 87. Patsy taught dance for decades, and her students included Tommy Tune and Debbie Allen.

SLIM WHITMAN
Country singer Slim Whitman, the high-pitched yodeler who sold millions of records through ever-present TV ads in the 1980s and 1990s and whose song saved the world in the film comedy "Mars Attacks!," died in June at a Florida hospital. He was 90.

FRAN WARREN
Fran Warren, whose 1947 recording of "A Sunday Kind of Love" was one of the classic hits of the big band era died on March 4 of natural causes. She was 87. Warren's career spanned more than 50 years with hits that included the Tony Martin duet "I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Prayers)," the Lisa Kirk duet "Dearie" and "It's Anybody's Heart." Her films roles included "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd."

JOHN KERR
John Kerr, the stage and film actor whose credits include the movie "South Pacific," the thriller "The Pit and the Pendulum" and a Tony Award-winning turn in "Tea and Sympathy," died in February. He was 81. He was perhaps best known for playing a sensitive prep school student who is bullied for being a suspected homosexual in Elia Kazan's 1953 Broadway production of "Tea and Sympathy." He went on to reprise the role in a 1956 film version.

PATTI PAGE
Unforgettable songs like "Tennessee Waltz" and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window?" made Patti Page the best-selling female singer of the 1950s and a star who would spend much of the rest of her life traveling the world. That singing rage Miss Patti Page died on New Year's Day in Encinitas, Calif., according to publicist Schatzi Hageman, ending one of pop music's most diverse careers. She was 85 and just five weeks away from being honored at the Grammy Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.

Conrad Bain

CONRAD BAIN
One of the most popular sitcoms of the early 1980s was Different Strokes. Actor Conrad Bain played the wonderful role of Mr. Drummand for the series entire run. He was 89. With the exception of a one-off appearance on the TV series Unforgettable in 2011, Bain has not acted since 1996, when he parodied his Diff'rent Strokes character on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Bain was also a starring player on Norman Lear's 1970s sitcom Maude, playing the uptight Dr. Harmon, a foil to Bea Arthur's title character.

JANE HARVEY
Jane Harvey, who recorded with the Benny Goodman orchestra in the 1940’s and later sang with Desi Arnaz, died at her home in Los Angeles Aug. 15. The cause was cancer. She was 88. She did not stay with the Goodman band long, but one of her most enduring hits with them was "Close As Pages In A Book".

EYDIE GORME
Concert and recording superstar Eydie Gormé, who – performing everything from ballads to bossa nova with singing partner and husband Steve Lawrence – made an indelible impression on American audiences during the swingin' '60s, died August 10. She was 84.

DENNIS FARINA
Dennis Farina, a Chicago native and police officer who turned to acting, died in July at the age of 69 in Arizona. Farina, best known as detective Joe Fontana on the long-running TV series "Law & Order," suffered a blood clot in his lung, publicist Lori De Waal said.

JOAN FONTAINE

Joan Fontaine was a true legend of classic Hollywood.  In 1941, she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in Rebecca directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The following year, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941) making Fontaine the only actress to ever win an Academy Award in a film directed by Hitchcock. Her sister is equally good actress Olivia DeHavilland, with whom she had a lifelong feud with. Fontaine made her last movie in 1994. She died on December 15 at the age of 96.

PAUL TANNER
Paul Tanner, a trombonist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra who later played a space-age instrument on the Beach Boys hit "Good Vibrations," died at the age of 95 in February. Tanner performed with Miller from 1938 to 1942. During his long career he also worked as a movie studio and ABC musician in California, and performed with stars that included Tex Beneke, Henry Mancini and Arturo Toscanini.

Esther Williams

ESTHER WILLIAMS
Her talent was more than just her swimming ability. Her beauty and her screen prescene made her a favorite of a generation of film goers. Esther Williams was one of MGM's greatest stars. She was 91.  Williams's died in June in her sleep, according to her longtime publicist Harlan Boll. Following in the footsteps of Sonja Henie, who went from skating champion to movie star, Williams became one of Hollywood's biggest moneymakers, appearing in spectacular swimsuit numbers that capitalized on her wholesome beauty and perfect figure" in such films as "Easy to Wed," "Neptune's Daughter" and "Dangerous When Wet".

Rest in peace...

 

RIP: CONRAD BAIN

For many of us, the upbeat theme song lyrics "What might be right for you, may not be right for some" became a life-affirming maxim back in the late 1970s, when they opened each episode of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The wholesome program about a New York businessman who adopts a pair of orphaned brothers from Harlem regularly showcased family values and life lessons, usually delivered by father figure Phillip Drummond, played by actor Conrad Bain. Fans of the popular comedy series will be sad to learn that Bain, long out of the acting game, has reportedly died at the age of 89.

TMZ reports that Bain passed away on Monday night in Livermore, Calif., of causes yet unknown. With the exception of a one-off appearance on the TV series Unforgettable in 2011, Bain has not acted since 1996, when he parodied his Diff'rent Strokes character on an episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Bain was also a starring player on Norman Lear's 1970s sitcom Maude, playing the uptight Dr. Harmon, a foil to Bea Arthur's title character.

His cause of death was unclear, but his daughter Jennifer told TMZ: "He was an amazing person. He was a lot like Mr. Drummond, but much more interesting in real life. He was an amazing father."

Bain's death leaves only one surviving member from his "Diff'rent Strokes" TV family. Dana Plato, who played his daughter Kimberly, died in 1999 of a drug overdose. Gary Coleman, who played adopted son Arnold Jackson, died in 2010 after a fall down a flight of stairs in his home. Only Todd Bridges, who played his adopted son Willis Jackson, remains.

When reached for comment, Bridges' manager had not yet heard of Bain's reported passing.

Bain is survived by his twin brother Bonar, and his three sons and one daughter...

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