'Diff'rent Strokes' Actor Dead at 57
Diff'rent Strokes actor Melanie Watson died on Dec. 26 following a lengthy hospitalization. She was 57. Her brother, Robert Watson, confirmed the tragic news to TMZ.
Diff'rent Strokes Star Melanie Watson Dead at 57
Watson was best known for playing the role of Kathy Gordon on Diff'rent Strokes, the classic Norman Lear sitcom which starred Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two orphaned youngsters sent to live with wealthy Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain). Watson appeared in four episodes of Diff'rent Strokes, including star turns on the 1982 episode Kathy and the 1984 episode Kathy's Olympics.
Watson, who was born in Dana Point, CA, in 1968, was discovered by a talent scout at the age of 13 at her local YMCA. That person, in turn, connected Watson with Diff'rent Strokes writer Marshall Goldberg, who was working on a sitcom-talk-show hybrid entitled The Baxters. Though that show didn't last more than a season, it got Watson on Lear's radar and scored her the role of Kathy. Watson left acting after her role on Diff'rent Strokes to pursue a career in disability advocacy, founding the organization Train Rite, which trains shelter dogs to assist disabled people.
'I Didn't Realize What a Gift It Was'
Watson was interviewed for a 2020 IndieWire profile on Lear's own disability advocacy. Reminiscing on her time working on Diff'rent Strokes, Watson admitted that she was "a pill" to work with. "I was always playing with my yo-yo and listening to my Walkman," she joked.
Frank Carroll/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
“Back in those days, I didn’t have a wheelchair,” she explained. “So I was carried everywhere.” Only once did Watson blanche at what the writers had planned for her, when she was to enter on crutches and make an impassioned plea to another character. “I did not want to do that,” she said. A few years before the shoot, Watson had suffered a terrible fall while trying to walk. “I can remember saying, ‘This is somebody else’s dream,” she said. “But they explained to me this was the premise of the episode.” The shoot ended up going off without a hitch.
"I’m proud of Norman for going against the norm and doing something," Watson reflected of her time on the show. "I didn’t realize what a gift it was to be the first one out there. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stayed in the business," Melanie said.