New Gary Coleman documentary explores late actor’s move to Utah — where he found relief from Hollywood and personal distress

After late actor Gary Coleman rose to fame on the sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” and became one of the most popular child actors throughout the 1970s and ’80s, he found himself pigeonholed.

That was in part because he couldn’t escape his catchphrase — “What’chu talkin ‘bout, Willis?”

That line from the show followed him just about everywhere, as many friends attest in the new documentary “Gary.” And he despised it.

Due to a congenital kidney defect that led to lifelong health challenges, Coleman’s growth was stunted at 4 feet, 8 inches. The combination of his height and his strong association with the character of Arnold Jackson on “Diff’rent Strokes” made it hard for Coleman to break out beyond his role as a child star, according to the documentary, which recently started streaming on Peacock.

Coleman was 18 when “Diff’rent Strokes” got canceled, but subsequent roles Coleman landed generally didn’t allow for his character to mature.

And it’s something that affected Coleman his entire life.

“Celebrity is always a burden. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care how much you claim you like it. You are stuck with it for life,” he says in an old interview clip featured in “Gary.” “You’re going to die a celebrity even if you haven’t worked in 20 years.”

Those words came during what would end up being Coleman’s final interview before his death at the age of 42 in Utah, where the actor spent his last five years.

Over 90 minutes, “Gary” explores the ups and downs of Coleman’s life — including stardom, health challenges and financial woes. And a major part of the story takes place in Utah, where the actor found both relief from the Hollywood spotlight and distress in his personal life.

Why Gary Coleman moved to Utah

Coleman’s life in the spotlight started early, around the age of 7. As the actor’s longtime friend and former manager Dion Mial says in “Gary,” Coleman “felt completely abandoned by the people who were close to him” by the time “Diff’rent Stokes” ended when he was 18.

Much of that distrust stemmed from financial mismanagement. According to the documentary, Coleman earned more than $18 million as an actor, but most of the money was not going to him but rather to his parents and business advisers.

When Coleman expressed his desire to be done with the entertainment industry, agents and others in his circle continued to push him in that direction, Mial says.

But when Coleman got approached about filming the Latter-day Saint comedy “Church Ball” in Provo, Utah, he found something different.

On the last day of filming in 2005, Coleman called his girlfriend in Los Angeles and told her he wanted to move to the Beehive State.

“The people here in Utah are awesome,” Anna Gray recalls Coleman telling her. “They’re so friendly and wonderful and they’re not treating me like Gary Coleman. They’re treating me like just Gar.”

Coleman started a new chapter, buying a house in Santaquin, about 20 miles from Provo, and becoming involved with Shannon Price, whom he met while filming “Church Ball.”

But, as just about everyone in “Gary” attests, it didn’t give him the resolution he was looking for.

Gary Coleman’s last years in Utah

The word “tumultuous” comes up a few times when Coleman’s relationship with Price is brought up in “Gary.”

The pair married on Aug. 28, 2007, and divorced less than a year after that, though Price was still living in Coleman’s house at the time of his death in 2010.

Domestic violence disputes and unfulfilled restraining orders plagued their relationship, according to the documentary.

Sheila Erickson Rolls, who was Coleman’s theatrical agent in Utah, believes the pair mostly fought about money. There wasn’t a lot of work for Coleman in Utah, she said, leading to financial troubles.

Many of Coleman’s closest friends believe Price was using Coleman for fame. Some even say she played a part in his death, though the brain hemorrhage caused by a fall in his house was ruled accidental .

“I broke down. I cried. How can people be so evil and think that I did this? Why? Because I’m the ex-wife? I’m the evil person, right?” Price says in the documentary. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t touch him. I didn’t hurt him. I wasn’t near him. Nothing happened.”

“With Shannon Price I was always optimistic that he was one day going to come to me and say, ‘I’m done. I need her gone, I need her out of my life,’” Randy Kester, Coleman’s lawyer in Utah, says in the documentary. “So I was sad for him that he didn’t get to that point.”

Coleman died on May 28, 2010, at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo.

For all of the “tragic moments” Coleman experienced, Mial says in the documentary, he chooses to look at the complete picture of the actor’s life — including the victories and triumphs.

“Gary did live a life fraught with so many disappointments. There were a lot of people that let him down. ... The entertainment industry is not designed to protect anyone’s life. It will chew you up and spit you out,” he says. “The proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and his life and career tasted great. Give him that credit, and acknowledge him for that.”