Gary Coleman Was Frustrated That Arnold Never Aged on ‘Diff’rent Strokes’

Thanks to his hit sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, Gary Coleman was the biggest child star in the world. Unfortunately, that was a title Coleman held for many more years than he’d intended. 

Coleman was 10 when he was cast as Arnold Jackson, one of two orphans taken in by the wealthy Mr. Drummond. Arnold’s older brother Willis, played by Todd Bridges, grew into a young man over the course of the show’s run from 1978 to 1986. But while Willis was dating Janet Jackson, getting into trouble and planning a move out of the Drummonds’ deluxe condo, Arnold seemed perpetually stuck in the fourth grade.

That was largely due to Coleman’s physical appearance. He suffered from a kidney condition and the medication used to treat his ailment stalled his growth, leaving him 4-foot-8 even as he approached 18 years old. He still looked like a cute, chubby-faced kid but he didn’t feel like one.

“He was a big man in this little kid’s body,” says Bridges in the Peacock documentary Gary. Bridges was talking about Coleman’s precocious ability to deliver smart-ass, adult-sounding dialogue from the mouth of what appeared to be a cherubic kid. But it’s an accurate description of Coleman’s real-life trap.

“When Gary was 17,” says Coleman’s former manager, Dion Mial, “he was not comfortable with the fact that the character of Arnold Jackson was not aging at the same pace that Gary Coleman was aging.” 

Diff’rent Strokes producers “didn’t want to change him, you know,” said the show’s casting director Eve Brandstein. “He was the golden goose, and that caused him pain, emotionally, I’m sure.”

Gary features a clip of Coleman on The Tonight Show with guest host Joan Rivers. “Are they maturing you on the show?” she asked.

“Not much,” Coleman replied.

“Are you complaining?” 

“Of course,” he said. “Not much I can do about it — yet.”

Audiences were getting tired of the bit as well. “The ratings were declining,” said Brandstein. “How many times can you deal with the same kind of jokes or the same kind of energy?”

When the show was finally canceled, “Gary was 18 and he was exhausted. He was spent,” said Mial. “He retreated,” vowing never to work again in the entertainment industry. Although managers and family pressured him to break that promise, he never got over his resentment of Diff’rent Strokes.

“Diff’rent Strokes must die, and it must die soon,” Coleman told Entertainment Weekly in 2000. “I don’t care if it’s a bloody death, I don’t care if it’s a quiet death, just as long as it dies.”