Dana Michelle Plato was an American actress. An influential teen idol of the late 1970s and early 1980s, she was known for playing Kimberly Drummond on the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986). Her personal struggles with substance abuse were well documented by the media and lead to her premature death at the age of 34. Her life has retrospectively been called a "tragedy".
Plato in 1994
Image: Dana Plato signature
The cast of Diff'rent Strokes with guest star Nancy Reagan on set in 1983.
Plato on the set of Diff'rent Strokes in 1983
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, respectively, who are two boys from Harlem taken in by a wealthy Park Avenue businessman and his daughter. Phillip Drummond is a widower for whom their deceased mother previously worked; his daughter, Kimberly, is played by Dana Plato. During the first season and the first half of the second season, Charlotte Rae also starred, as Mrs. Edna Garrett, the Drummonds' first housekeeper, who ultimately spun off into her own sitcom, The Facts of Life, as a housemother at the fictional Eastland School. The second housekeeper, Adelaide Brubaker, was played by Nedra Volz. The third housekeeper, Pearl Gallagher, was played by Mary Jo Catlett, first appearing as a recurring character, later becoming a main cast member.
Diff'rent Strokes
Nancy Reagan on the set of Diff'rent Strokes in 1983