Gary Coleman: New documentary suggests child actor’s death was ‘suspicious’

Coleman died in 2010 at the age of 42

The first trailer for the new Peacock documentary Gary, about the life of actor Gary Coleman, suggests: “His death was suspicious.”

According to the film’s official logline, the 90-minute documentary will explore the “fascinating life and mysterious death of beloved child actor, Gary Coleman.”

The film presents interviews with a range of talking heads, including former Diff’rent Strokes costar Todd Bridges who played Willis Jackson.

Coleman shot to international fame on the beloved sitcom that ran from 1978 to 1986. It is particularly remembered for Coleman’s oft-repeated catchphrase: “What’choo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”

Bridges describes Coleman as “a true star.”

Others interviewed in the new film include Coleman’s estranged parents, his former managers and his ex-wife Shannon Price.

Gary Coleman attending the premiere of ‘Midgets vs Mascots’ in 2009 (Getty)

Offscreen, Coleman’s life was beset with health and financial difficulties. Coleman grew up with a kidney disease, and the medications he used to treat it limited his growth to 4ft 8in.

In archive news footage included in the trailer, he says: “If someone had told me that my life would have been like this early enough where I could have got out, I would have got out.”

His former manager Dion Mial recalls a heartbreaking conversation with Coleman: “He said, ‘I just wanted to say goodbye. I cannot take this anymore,’ and we cried. His life was fraught with disappointments. From 1985 until his death, he lived with not a single kidney.”

Coleman died in 2010 at the age of 42, a year after undergoing heart surgery. His official cause of death was a brain bleed known as an epidural hematoma.

The documentary includes his ex-wife Price’s 911 call and includes speculation about his death. Price tells the camera: “People think that I did this. Because I’m the ex-wife, I’m the evil person, right?”

In 2022, former Saturday Night Live actor Molly Shannon accused Coleman of sexual assault.

She said that in 1987 she had signed with Coleman’s manager Mark Randall and went to meet the actor for tea at the Plaza Hotel in New York.

After the meeting, Coleman invited her to check out the penthouse suite he was staying in.

Shannon alleges that as soon as Randall left the suite, Coleman’s behavior turned “relentless.”

”He was like trying to kiss me and get on top and I was like, ‘No, Gary. Stop,’” she said. “So, I push him off. Then, I would get off the bed. Then, he would bounce on the bed.”

Shannon said she eventually “sprinted out” of the room and told Randall to “watch” Coleman better.

“I wish I could have stood up for myself more,” she added.