Warning: This article talks about a possible suicide. Please read carefully and take care of yourself.
Dana Plato was born on November 7, 1964, in Maywood, California. She was an actress best known for playing Kimberly Drummond, a caring character, on the popular TV show Diff’rent Strokes, which ran from 1978 to 1986. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, she became a teen idol.
Aside from Diff’rent Strokes, Dana appeared in many other TV shows and movies. According to IMDb, some of her TV appearances included The Six Million Dollar Man (1975), Family (1976), What Really Happened to the Class of ’65? (1978), Hello, Larry (three episodes), The Facts of Life (1979), CHiPs (1979 and 1980), High School U.S.A. (1983), The Love Boat (1974), and Growing Pains (1985).
Dana Plato appeared in several movies, including Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Return to Boggy Creek (1977), California Suite (1978), and Prime Suspect (1989), along with some smaller, less known films.
Sadly, Dana passed away on May 8, 1999, in Moore, Oklahoma, at just 34 years old. People wonder what led to such a heartbreaking and early end to her life.
How did Dana Plato die?
According to her IMDb bio and other sources, Dana Plato’s death at first seemed to be an accidental overdose of the painkiller “Loritab.” But 13 days later, on May 21, 1999, a coroner ruled her death a suicide because of the large amount of drugs in her system and her past attempts to take her own life. Some of her friends and people who knew her disagreed with this ruling.
On the day Dana Plato died, she had just done an interview with Howard Stern, hoping it would help restart her career. She and her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, who was also her manager, were on their way back to California in their motor home. They stopped at Menchaca’s parents’ house in Moore, Oklahoma, for a Mother’s Day weekend visit. Dana wasn’t feeling well, so she took some Lortab (a painkiller) and a muscle relaxer, then went to take a nap with her fiancé. When he woke up, he found her unresponsive next to him.
Dana Plato had been dealing with substance abuse for many years before her death. Her difficulties were often linked to the fact that she struggled to find more acting roles after Diff’rent Strokes ended.
We hope she has found peace now.
If you or someone you know is going through a tough time or is in crisis, help is available. You can call or text 988, or chat online at 988lifeline.org. For international crisis resources, check the link provided.
Police have identified the shooter responsible for opening fire at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church – an immigrant hailing from…
Police in Houston, Texas have identified the shooter who opened fire at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church on Sunday as Genesse Ivonne Moreno, an immigrant from El Salvador with a lengthy criminaI history.
She previously used the name Jeffrey Escalante Moreno, prompting some reports that she identified as a transgender individuaI. Law enforcement officials did not refer to her as such during a press conference on Monday, however.
Two people were hit by the gunman — a 57-year-old man and a seven-year-old boy who accompanied the shooter — after she opened fire just after 2 p.m. on Sunday. Off-duty police officers who were present at the scene engaged the shooter and returned fire.
She was ultimately pronounced de ad at the scene.
The child — who has been identified as Moreno’s son — is not expected to survive, though he remains in criticaI condition at an area hospital, a Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle.
According to investigators, Hassig arrived at the church accompanied by the child just before Spanish mass was set to begin. She was dressed in a bIack trench coat and was armed with a semiautomatic rifIe, which she pointed at officers before she was shot and kiIIed.
Christopher Hassig, commander of Houston Police Department Homicide Division, identified Moreno as female during the press conference and confirmed that she has a history of using both male and female aliases.
She utilized both male and femaIe names, but through all of our investigation through this point, talking with individuaIs, interview, documents, Houston Police Department reports, she has been identified this entire time as female. She, her, he said.
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