14 DAY TRIAL // Gary Coleman, star of the ‘80s show and a very controversial figure in recent years as well, passed away after his family decided to take him off life support. The diminutive star was admitted to the hospital earlier this week suffering from brain hemorrhage and his condition deteriorated within hours, without doctors being able to do anything to assist him. He is survived by his wife, People magazine confirms.
Months ago, during a televised interview, Coleman suffered a stroke but was believed to have made full recovery after it. This week, the actor was rushed to the hospital again, though reports did not say what was wrong with him. Doctors now explain that he’d suffered a brain hemorrhage, which put him in a coma hours after being admitted. In a matter of a few hours more, he was on life support. Coleman died Friday at noon, after his wife of two years, according to reports, was told that there was nothing more to be done for him and she decided to turn off the machines keeping him alive.
“Gary Coleman, who by age 11 had skyrocketed to become TV’s brightest star but as an adult could never quite land on solid footing, has died after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42. Coleman died at 12:05 p.m. at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, where he had been in a coma. ‘He was removed from life support; soon thereafter, he passed quickly and peacefully,’ his manager John Alcantar says. ‘By Gary’s bedside were his wife and other close family members’,” People writes.
“The actor suffered an intracranial hemorrhage at his Utah home on Wednesday night. On Thursday, he was ‘conscious and lucid,’ the hospital says in a statement, ‘but by early afternoon that same day, Mr. Coleman was slipping in and out of consciousness and his condition worsened’,” the mag further says. Coleman suffered from bad health even before he became famous at a very young age, having been diagnosed with nephritis, which People describes as “a potentially fatal kidney defect.”
Coleman rose to international fame for his role on “Diff’rent Strokes” (1978 – 1986), with reports saying he would pocket as much as $100,000 per episode, which was quite a hefty amount at the time. He never managed to match this performance, and his career saw ups and downs in subsequent years, though more of the latter. All in all, People says, Coleman amassed and ultimately lost a fortune estimated at $18 million. He is survived by his wife, Shannon Price, who was 18 year his junior.