Todd Bridges Alleges Co-Star’s Father Tried to Get Him Fired From ‘Diff’rent Strokes’

Todd Bridges is speaking candidly about the ups and downs of his relationship with his onscreen brother, Gary Coleman.

The actor, 60, revealed that while he and his Diff’rent Strokes co-star were “tight like brothers” during their first three years shooting together, things changed when Gary’s father, Willie Coleman, entered the picture.

“The first three years, me and Gary were close,” Bridges said of shooting the sitcom, which aired from 1978 to 1986 and starred Bridges and Gary as two boys from Harlem taken in by a wealthy New York businessman. “Tight like brothers. Just like brothers.”

“When his father came, everything changed,” he continued. “It wasn’t a fun set to be on.”

Bridges recalled Willie attempting to have him fired from Diff’rent Strokes after the two young stars got into a physical fight. “Gary’s father tried to have me fired because at 13 years old, Gary slapped me, and I slapped him back, and [he was] like, ‘We’ve got to fire him. He slapped the star!’”

Despite the altercation, the producers refused to cut Bridges. “They were like, ‘Willie, we can’t fire Willis. The show is about Willis and Arnold. We can’t fire Willis. It would be dumb,’” the actor recalled.

“I knew, for me, I was okay,” he continued of his role on the show. “Because Gary was the star, I was okay with that. But I got all the girls, so I didn’t care. The audience was predominantly young girls. When I came out, they would lose it. So yeah, you can be the star.”

Despite the difficult time in their relationship, Bridges said he and Coleman eventually found their way back to being close.

“We had a great relationship. I don’t know if people know this and how much it impacted me… Willie Coleman separated us for a few years,” he said. “When the show ended, I didn’t talk to Gary because I was having my own issues. Then he started having issues.”

When the two eventually reunited, they “became close again, very close again,” as Bridges said “Gary didn’t want anything to do with his parents because he knew what they were doing to him.”

Gary died on May 28, 2010, after suffering a brain hemorrhage. He was 42.