Relatives, friends, and business associates are speaking candidly for the first time about actor Gary Coleman in the upcoming Peacock documentary, GARY.
Diving deeper into the child actor’s success on Diff’rent Strokes and, ultimately, his titular Gary Coleman Show, the documentary offers a look into each era of his life leading up to his death.
Citing claims made in the film, Radar Online mentioned that Coleman did not pass away due to natural causes. The culprit, according to the outlet, was Shannon Price, who married the actor several months after meeting in early 2007.
His friends and family believe his ex-wife was involved in his death
Among those believing Price is responsible for the entertainer’s demise is his longtime friend and former business manager Dion Mial, along with Coleman’s friends Darren Nord and Brandi Buys. The trio believes that Price had something to do with the tragedy.
On May 28, 2010, Coleman died from bleeding in his brain. Price, who had allegedly been living with him as a “roommate” rather than a spouse at time, claimed she was in bed when she asked him to make her food after he got home from dialysis.
“I was shocked that he was fixing her dinner after dialysis, because I’d seen how ill he was after — he was weak, he was sick and honestly, he just wanted to go take a nap,” friend Brandy Buys said.
After hearing a “big loud boom,” Price said she found Coleman in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. In the 911 call, she can be heard refusing to listen to the operator’s instructions to help him.
“I’m gagging. I got blood on myself, I can’t deal,” she said in one clip.
When the operator asked if she could lift his head, Price replied, “No I can’t, it’s all bloody and I’m not trying to. He’s not with it.”
“I just thought he was gonna go to the hospital, get stitched up, come back, all is good,” Price claimed in the documentary.
She said she went back to sleep and woke up to a call that “they were taking him to dialysis and he immediately went into cardiac arrest.”
From there, Price only added to the suspicion, Price by not accompanying Coleman to the hospital and later deciding to take him off life support. All this despite honoring Coleman’s wishes to be kept alive for two weeks in case of a catastrophe.
Coleman’s former girlfriend, Anna Gray, who is quoted in the documentary saying, “I think Price’s actions speak volumes, and I don’t have to say much more than that.”
The GARY documentary goes on to note another shocking decision Price made in her choice to sell a photo of Coleman on his deathbed.
For Mial, the move is “one of the most depraved acts I’ve ever seen perpetrated on another human being in my life”.
GARY, which premiered Aug. 29, is currently streaming on Peacock.