Peacock’s new documentary on Gary Coleman, premiering today, Thursday, August 29, throws suspicion on the late actor’s death and whether his ex-wife, Shannon Price, was involved.
The doc traces the career of Coleman, who rose to fame playing Arnold Jackson in the hit sitcom Diff’rent Strokes from 1978 to 1986, a role that made him the highest-paid child actor on television at the time. It also covers his various health and financial issues, in addition to his death in 2010.
As first reported by Decider, towards the end of director Robin Dashwood’s documentary, the attention turns to Coleman’s passing. The actor died at the age of 42 at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah, on May 28, 2010, after falling down the stairs at his home in Santaquin and striking his head, resulting in an epidural hematoma.
Per Price, who was divorced from the actor but still living with him, Coleman suffered a seizure, which led to the fall. The final 20 minutes of the doc focuses on the phone call Price made to 911 to report Coleman’s fatal injury.
While there is no proof or evidence that Price had any involvement in Coleman’s passing, some of the talking heads in the new documentary suggest she played a part.
Coleman’s long-time friend and former business manager, Dion Mial, as well as his friends Darren Nord and Brandi Buys, all say the death was “suspicious,” despite police ruling it an “accident.” Mial adds that, given Coleman’s 4’ 8’’ stature, it would have been hard to suffer such brutal injuries from a fall.
“We were absolutely stumped because there were way too many questions with no answers,” Mial says, per the Daily Beast.
Price, who appears in the documentary, denies any involvement. “I didn’t touch him…nothing happened,” she says, which, judging by the 911 call, seems to be true.
“I’m gagging. I got blood on myself. I can’t deal. I don’t want to be traumatized right now,” Price says in the call. When the emergency operator asks Price if she can put pressure on Coleman’s wound, she replies, “No, I can’t, it’s like all bloody, and I’m not, and I’m not trying to… he, he’s not with it.”
Coleman’s friend Buys says she was “appalled” when she first heard Price’s 911 call. “‘I can’t help him because there’s blood?’ If you care about somebody, you don’t care about that,” Buys shares in the doc. “She didn’t help him. She wanted somebody to get there and help him.”
Coleman’s friend and former business associate, Anna Gray, adds, “She was more worried about herself than the person she was calling 911 for. I think her actions speak volumes, and I don’t have to say much more than that.”
Defending herself, Price states, “My 911 call was frantic. But I mean, it was a decent amount of blood, and it just freaked me out. I did not want to intervene with where the blood was because I knew help was coming. It’s not that I didn’t help him. I helped him. Clearly, I helped him.”
Buys also takes issue with Price selling the last photo she took with Coleman, where he appears on his hospital bed with tubes coming from his mouth. Buys chose to take Coleman off life support after two days.
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“That’s how everybody is going to remember Gary,” Buys notes. “Nobody looks good when they’re dying. But not everybody gets their final moment sold.”
Mial says the photo is “one of the most depraved acts that I’ve ever seen perpetrated on another human being in my life.”
“I think that people needed to honestly see it,” Price adds in defense of the photo. “To see what he went through health wise.”
While the doc appears to show Price as cold and callous at the end of Coleman’s life, it doesn’t offer any legitimate evidence that she was involved in the actor’s death. At the time, local authorities found no evidence of foul play.
Gary, Premieres, Thursday, August 29, Peacock
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