(1964-1999)

Dana Plato was a sad example of a child actor gone wrong. She gained fame in the part of Kimberly on Diff'rent Strokes from 1978 to 1984. All of the young actors in this show (Todd Bridges, Gary Coleman) seemed to fall into misfortune after its cancellation. Plato was unable to find steady work, and was arrested in Las Vegas in 1991 for a video store robbery. In 1992 she was arrested for forging a valium prescription. Following an embarrasing on-air appearance on the Howard Stern show, on May 8 1999, she died of a drug overdose. A subsequent coroner's inquest later ruled her death to be suicide.