Dana Michelle Plato

 Dana Michelle Plato, born Dana Michelle Strain (November 7, 1964 – May 8, 1999)

She played the role of Kimberly Drummond on the U.S. television sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, from 1978 to 1986. After leaving the cast of Diff'rent Strokes, Plato attempted to establish herself as a working actress, with mixed success: she worked sporadically in made-for-TV movies and in independent films, and did voice-over work. However, she found it difficult to step out of the long shadows cast by her sitcom career and ended up taking roles in B-movies such as "Bikini Beach Race" and "Lethal Cowboy." During this time, she also posed for Playboy magazine. She was arrested in 1991 for robbing a video store in Las Vegas but was placed on probation. The following year, Dana was, again, arrested for forging a prescription for Valium. She finished an interview with Howard Stern, in the spring of 1999, when she and her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, were headed back to California. The interview was one in which Dana hoped to revive her stalled career. They stopped at his parents' house in Moore, Oklahoma, for a weekend Mother's Day visit before continuing on to California. On Saturday, May 8, 1999, Dana died of what appeared to be an accidental overdose of a painkiller called "Loritab". Later, on May 21, a coroner's inquest ruled her death a suicide due to a large amount of drugs in her body and her history of past suicide attempts.