Memorable ‘Diff’rent Strokes’ Guest Star Melanie Watson Has Died

Actress and politician Melanie Watson has died. She was 57.

Watson was born with osteogenesis imperfecta—a condition which makes a person’s bones extremely fragile and confines them to a wheelchair—and was recently hospitalized for bleeding in Colorado Springs. Things quickly took a turn for the worse, and she died this past Friday, per TMZ.

She was best known for her role on Diff’rent Strokes as a child, where she appeared from seasons three through six from 1981 to 1984. Most notably, she helped Arnold (played by Gary Coleman) deal with his diagnosis that revealed he would never grow taller than five feet.

She eventually retired from acting to form the organization Train Rite, which focused on training dogs from shelters to work as service animals for the disabled.

Later on in life, she turned to politics, where she ran for city council in Colorado Springs, CO in 2017 and then ran for Colorado state senate in 2020. According to her Facebook page, she had planned to run again in 2025 until her health condition got worse.

In 2020, she spoke with IndieWire about her role on Diff’rent Strokes and the show’s constant spotlighting of disability issues.

“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,” she said.