ACTRESS PLATO DIES OF OVERDOSE

MOORE, Okla. (AP) Former "Diff'rent Strokes" actress Dana Plato, who had
battled drug problems over the years, died of an accidental overdose
Saturday night, police said.

Police Sgt. Scott Singer said Ms. Plato, 34, had apparently taken the
painkiller Loritab and Valium. "The death appears to be an accidental
overdose. We don't suspect suicide," Singer said Sunday.

Ms. Plato played Kimberly Drummond on the NBC sitcom that ran from 1978 to
1984. Like her fellow child co-stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, she has
found herself in and out of trouble over the years since the show was canceled.

In 1992 she received five years' probation for forging prescriptions for
Valium. That probation was added to five years' probation for robbing a Las
Vegas video store in 1991.

"If I hadn't gotten caught, it could have been the worst thing that happened
to me because I could have died of a drug overdose," she told reporters in 1992.

Ms. Plato and her fiance, Robert Menchaca, had stopped at his parents' home
in Moore for Mother's Day. She had arrived in Oklahoma after having appeared
on the "Howard Stern" show in New York on Saturday as part of an effort to
jumpstart her career.

Her recent career included mainly low-budget films such as 1992's "Bikini
Beach Race" and the 1997 film "Different Strokes: A Story of Jack and Jill,"
a direct-to-video softcore tale about a sexual threesome.

Ms. Plato and Menchaca, 28, were en route to Los Angeles. They lived in
Navarre, Fla.

Singer says Ms. Plato complained of being tired and went to take a nap
Saturday afternoon. He said Menchaca, who was with her, realized about 9:40
p.m. that there was a problem. Menchaca's mother, a nurse, and his brother
tried cardiopulmonary resuscitation to revive her but were unsuccessful.
Rescue workers were called and she was dead on arrival at Southwestern
Medical Center.

Singer says toxicology results aren't expected for about six weeks.

Coleman, who played the lovable Arnold on the show, pleaded no contest in
February to disturbing the peace for punching an autograph-seeker in the eye.

He was ordered to attend anger management classes, fined and given a
suspended jail sentence.

Bridges, who played Willis on the sitcom, has been arrested several times.

In 1990, Bridges was acquitted of assault with a deadly weapon in the near
fatal shooting of a narcotics dealer in a Los Angeles drug den.

He once testified that he became depressed and turned to drugs after his
show was canceled.