Actor

Dana Plato

Acting

Career Snapshot

Explained

These indicators come from TMDB. They are relative signals, not review ratings.

Acting credits

Established

Large and steady acting portfolio.

TMDB popularity

0.6

Low visibility

TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.

Movies: 22Series: 10

TMDB ID: 105027

IMDb ID: nm0686818

Known for: Acting

Born: November 7, 1964

Died: May 8, 1999

Age: 34

Place of birth: Maywood, California, USA

Gender: Female

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1974 - 2025

Years active: 52

Average TMDB rating: 6.53

Wikidata: Q264199

TMDB TMDB IMDb IMDb W Wikidata

Biography

Dana Michelle Plato (November 7, 1964 — May 8, 1999) was born in Maywood, California. Dana made an impact on the TV screen when she landed the role of Kimberly Drummond in the TV hit sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978) from 1978-1986. After the series ended, Dana had difficulty finding more acting work. Sometimes she would act in a made-for-TV movie or a low- budget silver-screen film. She was married for Lanny Lambert for seven years and they had a son. Plato was arrested in 1991 for robbing a Las Vegas video store and placed on probation; the next year she was arrested again, this time for forging a Valium prescription. She had just finished an interview with Howard Stern in the spring of 1999 when she and her fiancé, Robert Menchaca, were headed back to California. She hoped the interview would revive her stalled career. They stopped at his parents' house in Moore, Oklahoma for a Mother's-Day-weekend visit; on Saturday, May 8, 1999, Dana died of what appeared to be an accidental overdose of the painkiller "Loritab". On May 21, a coroner's inquest ruled her death a suicide because of the large amount of drugs in her body and her history of past suicide attempts. She was 34 years old.