Biographie

He sued his adoptive parents, Willie and Sue Coleman, over misappropriation and the pilfering of his trust fund in 1989. At the peak of his career in the early 1980s, in addition to movie and TV appearances, he made $70,000 per episode of "Diff'rent Strokes", a total of around $18 million in earnings! Coleman's parents set up a trust fund for his money, yet they carefully structured the arrangement to name themselves as paid employees of Coleman's production company so they could live off Coleman's salary. When the court finally dissolved the trust fund in 1986 upon Coleman turning 18, his parents' share was worth $770,000, while Coleman himself had only $220,000. Coleman then successfully sued both his parents and managers for $3.8 million in losses and won a $1,280,000 settlement. Afterward, Coleman (feeling used and betrayed) never saw or spoke to his foster parents or former accountants and managers ever again.

Filed for bankruptcy in 1999. In order to earn money, he worked as a security guard.

Appeared on Geraldo (1987) in early 1993 and announced he had tried to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills twice.

The brain hemorrhage that eventually led to his death, was a result of a fall at his home in Utah (on May 26th) that put him into a coma. His ex-wife Shannon Price, who was with him at his home at the time of the fall, made the 911 call. It was also Price who eventually made the decision to take Coleman off life support.

Had his first kidney transplant in 1973. His second in 1984.

[When asked by Howard Stern if he has had oral sex] No! that's not a place for a young woman's face to be.

[on the death of Arnold et Willy (1978) co-star Dana Plato] "It's very unfortunate that Dana is no longer with us... she was a wonderful woman, but her death was a welcome, though sad, piece of closure to "Diff'rent Strokes". The possibility of a reunion show no longer exists now... and thank God!"

By 1981, I got tired of the doing the show [Diff'rent Strokes]. I didn't wanna do it anymore. But there was nothing I could do about that, because the contract was already signed. So, I was a little bitter about that because I didn't wanna be there. The character [Arnold Jackson] wasn't growing up, and he wasn't interesting to me anymore.

My parents were as much under the thumb of everyone else [and the network, and all the people that are part of the Hollywood machine] as I was. I have worked on episodes of Arnold et Willy (1978) 15 hours straight. And everyone was looking the other way and no one said anything.

When Arnold et Willy (1978) got canceled, I was enormously thrilled and was very much looking forward to starting the rest of my life.