Yahoo Lifestyle “Diff'rent Strokes” star Gary Coleman threatened to slap show's hair stylist
"Gary went from being cute to ugly," the stylist said on Peacock's new documentary about the child star.
Gary, Peacock's new documentary about the troubled life of Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman, delves into the late actor's contentious relationship with his parents, and the influence his father in particular had over his on-set behavior.
Diff'rent Strokes hairstylist Joann Stafford Chaney recalls that once Coleman's father Willie started accompanying his son to set, "Gary went from being cute to ugly." She saw the actor "[pick] up all the ugliness of his dad, telling people, 'Who do you think I am? I run this show.'" She continues, "One day he says, 'Come here Joann, let me slap you.' I was like, 'Slap me?' I said, 'Boy if you slap me it will be the end of the show because I'll beat your ass."
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Gary chronicles the rapid ascent and protracted decline of the beloved child star. The documentary includes interviews with those who knew Gary best - his parents, Willie and Sue, his theatrical agent during the Strokes years, Victor Perillo, and his partner at the time of his 2010 death, Shannon Price.
The rest of the friends and associates interviewed for Gary, however, point fingers at these individuals for contributing to Coleman's later-in-life financial difficulties and health woes. Willie in particular is singled out for Gary's on-set behavioral shift.
Lifelong friend Dion Mial recalls that "by 1983, Gary was 15 and really at the height of his success." Diff'rent Strokes was a smash hit for NBC, and the unknown Coleman supplanted Maude actor Conrad Bain as its star, earning $100,000 per episode. Perillo notes that around this time, "the Colemans became his managers," to which Mial adds, "most children are not the employers of their parents."
"I was told that Gary was the lead of the show. The only reason the show stayed on the air was because of Gary," Willie Coleman says in Gary. So he started tagging along with Gary to set.
"The atmosphere changed on the set when Mr. Coleman showed up," says Diff'rent Strokes star Todd Bridges. "I remember the first thing I heard from him was, 'Look out, look out, the star is here!' and Gary came in on the top of some bodyguard's shoulders. I looked at Conrad and he looked at me and he was like, 'Okay, this is gonna change things."
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Chaney remembers that "nobody wanted Willie on set, because he created havoc. He'd be standing there," and Chaney strikes a puffed-up chest pose, "so everybody knew he was there." Mial remembers Willie being "very vocal about the fact that his son was the star of the show."
It was in this context that Chaney recalled Coleman threatening to slap her, which she promptly shut down.
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Joann Stafford Chaney in 'Gary'Only after Diff'rent Strokes was canceled in 1986 did Coleman begin to unpack the true impact his parents had on his career — and it wasn't positive. Coleman hired lawyer Drew Ryce to help investigate "his finances and his business relationships with his entire management team," he says in Gary.
"What we found out, almost immediately," Ryce continues, "is he'd earned over $18 million in fees as an actor, and most of the money was going to people that weren't Gary." His parents took 20 percent on top of various fraudulent trusts and locked accounts they set up to divert more money away from their son and toward themselves, actions that Gary eventually took them to court over, irrevocably fraying their relationship.
Gary is currently streaming on Peacock
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