Former child actress Dana Plato dies of accidental overdose

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

Ms. Plato played Kimberly Drummond on the NBC-TV 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 ... and Jill," a direct-to-video soft-core tale about a sexual threesome.

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

Singer said 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 said 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.

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