Dana Plato was born Dana Michelle Strain on November 7, 1964, in Maywood, California, to a teenage mother who was already caring for an eighteen-month-old child. In June 1965, when Dana was seven months old, she was adopted by Dean Plato, who owned a trucking company, and his wife, Kay. She grew up in the San Fernando Valley. Her adoptive parents divorced when she was three, after which she lived with her mother.
From a young age, Dana’s mother brought her to auditions. By the time she was seven, the girl had appeared in more than one hundred television commercials. She was also a skilled figure skater. At ten, she made her television acting debut with a brief appearance on The Six Million Dollar Man.
At thirteen, she made her film debut in the 1977 horror film Exorcist II: The Heretic. Her big break came after an appearance on The Gong Show, where a producer spotted her. That connection led to her being cast as Kimberly Drummond, the older sister of adopted brothers Arnold and Willis Jackson, on the NBC sitcom Diff’rent Strokes. The series premiered in 1978 and became an immediate hit.
Dana Plato was suddenly one of the most recognizable young actresses on television. In December 1983, she moved in with her boyfriend, rock guitarist Lanny Lambert. They married in 1984, and their only child, Tyler Edward Lambert, was born in July of that year. Shortly after the birth of her son, Plato was dismissed from her starring role on Diff’rent Strokes.
The show cited her pregnancy and struggles with substance abuse as the reasons. She did make occasional appearances on the series in 1985 and 1986, but her days as a regular cast member were over. Her personal life unraveled further in January 1988, when she separated from Lambert the same week her mother died of scleroderma. During her divorce proceedings in March 1990, Plato lost custody of Tyler to Lambert and was granted only visitation rights.
Around the same time, she reported that her accountant had disappeared with most of her money, leaving her with less than $150,000. Plato tried to establish herself as a serious actress, but success proved difficult to reclaim. She had breast implants and posed for a Playboy pictorial in June 1989. On February 28, 1991, she walked into a video store, pulled out a pellet weapon, and demanded the money from the cash register.
After she left with $164, the clerk called 911 and told the operator that she had just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes. About fifteen minutes later, Plato returned to the scene and was arrested. Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton posted her $13,000 bail. After trial, she was sentenced to five years probation.
In 1992, she was arrested a second time, this time for forging a prescription for a controlled substance. She served thirty days in jail for violating the terms of her probation and immediately entered a rehabilitation program. Plato later moved to Las Vegas, where she struggled with poverty and unemployment. At one point, she worked at a dry cleaning store.
Toward the end of her career, she took roles that were erotic in nature, appearing nude in Prime Suspect in 1989 and Compelling Evidence in 1995. She eventually became engaged to her manager, Robert Menchaca, and the two lived together in a motor home. On May 7, 1999, the day before she died, Plato appeared on the Howard Stern Show. She spoke openly about her life, discussing her financial troubles and past run-ins with the law.
Many callers insulted her and questioned whether she was truly sober, which angered and provoked her. Some callers, as well as host Howard Stern, came to her defense. The next morning, on May 8, 1999, Plato and Menchaca were on their way back to California when they stopped at Menchaca’s mother’s home in Moore, Oklahoma, for a Mother’s Day visit. Later during the visit, Plato said she felt unwell.
She took some medication and lay down with Menchaca inside the Winnebago motor home parked outside the house. When Menchaca woke up, he discovered that Plato had died in her sleep. She was only thirty-four years old. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.
Plato’s death marked the tragic end of a troubled life, but she remained remembered as one of the most popular teen idols of the 1970s and 1980s. The tragedy did not end there. On May 6, 2010, two days before the eleventh anniversary of his mother’s death, her son Tyler took his own life.
He was twenty-five years old.