Juvenile actor Gary Coleman was born February 8, 1968 in Zion, Lake County, Illinois, USA. Saturday February 8, 2025, would have been his 57th birthday had he survived. He passed away on May 28, 2010, in Provo, Utah, USA.

Let’s take a look back at his brief career. In the 1970’s and ’80s, Coleman was the highest paid child actor in the USA, best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in the sitcom Diff’rent Strokes.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Roles

At SciFi.Radio, Coleman is remembered for appearing on two episodes of Buck Rogers in the 35th Century as Hieronymus Fox, a 20th century child genius who developed advanced cryogenics technology, and froze himself to survive the nuclear holocaust that destroyed Earth as Buck knew it. He was thawed out in the 25th century, and became president of the planet Genesia, despite his youth. Hieronymus Fox debuted in “The Cosmic Whiz Kid,” where Buck rescued him from a kidnapper played by Ray Walston, who was Uncle Martin on My Favorite Martian years earlier. Hieronymus returned in “A Blast for Buck.”

Coleman also starred in the made-for-TV movie The Kid With a Broken Halo (1982) as Andy, a cherub having trouble passing angel training angel training. He made a guest appearance in one episode of Homeboys in Outer Space as Snafu.

In the 1997 videogame, The Curse of Monkey Island Coleman voiced Danny Falmouth. He also provided a voice for the video game Postal 2 in 2003.Coleman starred in The Kid with the 200 IQ (1983) which is not sci-fi, but like Big Bang Theory and Scorpion, is considered sci-fi-adjacent.

Personal Life and Challenges

Coleman born with severe kidney disease. The drugs used to treat it stunted his growth. He was 4’8″, and even when full-grown, still had a boyish face. He died when he was only 42. After a heart operation in 2009, Coleman developed postoperative pneumonia, which lead to seizures. It is believed that such a seizure caused him to fall down the stairs at his Santaquin, Utah home. This caused an epidural hematoma. He died in the hospital less than 24 hours after that.

Mike Hogan of Vanity Fair wrote “He was unquestionably a superstar, overshadowing them with his radiant charisma and boundless energy, but the kidney condition that enabled him, even as a teen, to play the world’s most precocious little brother on TV also complicated his life in ways most of us will never understand.”