Gary Coleman^†

A Norman Lear talent scout spotted him in a Chicago bank commercial when he was 9, which led directly to Diff'rent Strokes. His congenital kidney disorder had kept him permanently small, and that size made the show's premise work. Playing Arnold Jackson, the wisecracking kid from Harlem adopted by a wealthy Manhattan businessman, he became one of the most recognizable faces on American television from 1978 to 1986. The catchphrase 'What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?' turned into cultural shorthand that outlasted the show by decades.

By the time Diff'rent Strokes wrapped, his trust fund should have held close to $18 million. It held $220,000. His parents had structured themselves as paid employees of his production company and spent the rest. He won a $1.28 million judgment in 1993, filed for bankruptcy in 1999, and spent part of his adult life working as a mall security guard. Hollywood couldn't figure out what to do with a grown man in a child's body, so it didn't try. The mall job became a Simpsons episode. The joke landed because it was true.

The kidney disorder that made his career possible required lifelong dialysis and two failed transplants. He ran in California's 2003 gubernatorial recall election as a semi-serious candidate because the bar for entry was low and his name still meant something. In 2007, he married Shannon Price, a woman about 17 years younger, divorced her a year later, and kept living with her anyway. When he fell and hit his head at their Utah home in 2010, she was there. She had him taken off life support two days later. His will reportedly said to wait 15 days.

A photo of him unconscious on a ventilator appeared on the cover of Globe magazine days after his death; his former manager alleged Price sold it. A competing lawsuit over his estate followed before he was buried. A 2012 court ruling found Price was not his legal common-law wife, voiding her claim to a 2007 handwritten will naming her as beneficiary.