RIP Conrad Bain

Co-star of "Maude," star of "Diff'rent Strokes" dead at 89.

http%3A//www.tmz.com/2013/01/16/conrad-bain-dead-diffrent-strokes/



• RIP!

• He was alive?

• Was it a stroke?

  Had%20to%20be%20asked.%20

• "A man is born, he's a man of means. Then along come two, they've got nothing but their jeans(?)." Was those really the lyrics to that theme song?

• Yes, r4. The message being all they've got to their name are their jeans.

• UM, I think it's GENES as in genetics. All they have is their genetics. Could be wrong. Gawd that whole cast is dead...Plato, Coleman, Bain, even Dixie Carter. Makes me sad.

• Wasn't he sorta complicit in the exploitation of the kids on that show?

• I believe the lyric was, "They've got nothing but their DREAMS".

• The WHOLE cast, R6????

  The very much alive Todd Bridges

• I'll never forget him, because my memory is clear of him in the first place.

• I'm still here! (I think...)

  Charlotte Rae

• He was a lovely man. Todd Bridges said he was his father figure.

• Did he ever publicly comment on the tragic circumstances that dogged Plato, Coleman and Bridges?

• My black ass is still here. I just got over being molested by Arthur Carlson.

  Shavar%20%27Dudley%27%20Ross

• He was very modest and lived in a condo here in Livermore. I never saw him in person, but I knew he was said to live in that complex.

• Todd Bridges is very much alive. He is the only one. And Charlotte Rae is still kickin' it.

• The Diff'rent Strokes Curse claims another victim!!!

• Are you kidding me, R17? I assume that's a joke. Conrad Bain would have been 90 in a few weeks. He wasn't the victim of any curse.

• This sucks. I know he was old and this isn't exactly a shock, but I guess I assumed he would make his 90th birthday next month.

• I'm sitting Shiva as I type.

  Mindy Cohn

• People think of 'Diff'rent Strokes' as a comedy, but it was way ahead of its time - a white father adopting two black boys.

• This means in another month he'll be eligible to guest star on "Hot In Cleveland."

• The end of an era. : (

• He played a homophobe on Maude.

• A guy would have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool you, R18!

  R17

• I'm not dead...just my career is all. Gonna miss you, Mishter Dee!

  Danny "Sam" Cooksey

• R25, with all of the delusional posters we have here who believe in things like that, it's hard to know for sure sometimes.

  R18

• Would someone please post the lyrics to the whole theme song? Like r4, I must have misheard most of it.

• Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum, What might be right for you, may not be right for some. A man is born, he's a man of means, Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans. But they got, Diff'rent Strokes. It takes, Diff'rent Strokes. It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world. Everybody's got a special kind of story Everybody finds a way to shine, It don't matter that you got not a lot, So what? They'll have theirs, and you'll have yours, and I'll have mine. And together we'll be fine.... 'Cause it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world. Yes it does. It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world.

  http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/diffrentstrokeslyrics.html

• It took two people plus Alan Thicke to write that song.

• Opening Theme titles (I think this one is Season 6):

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DW0CYJNw9YJQ

• Canadian. Didn't he have a twin brother named (seriously) Bonar? I seem to remember something about him on SCTV.

• Bonar Bain is Conrad's twin, and the obit on TMZ says Bonar is still living.

• What about the roach lady who played the third maid, Hazel?

• Pearl (Mary Jo Cutlett) and she is still living.

• Turtles everywhere grieve.

• Well, now God'll get him for that.

• R35 CATLETT. She's not a piece of veal.

• Who ever would have thought that Bill Macy would be the last one standing?

• Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum, Gays spread AIDS, through their infected cum A man is born, but he likes the dick Some say that's OK, but it is really sick But they got, Diff'rent Strokes. It takes, Diff'rent Strokes. It takes, Diff'rent Strokes to move the world. Fags hang around holes of glory Getting tweaked and spreading AIDS It don't matter that you got not a lot, So what? That's a reason you should be afraid. And together we'll spread AIDS 'Cause it takes, Diff'rent Strokes to spred the AIDS

• He was still doing interviews as of a year or two ago when Gary Coleman died, and Todd Bridges says he talked with Conrad Bain on the phone regularly until recently.

• Excuse me?

  Adrienne%20Barbeau

• Conrad Bain's character on Maude visits gay bar He plays a homophobe btw

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgWoHFATfMl4

• RIP Conrad. Somewhere, a pantsuit-clad Bea Arthur is hollering at him at 300 decibels in that great wet bar in the sky.

• Finally.

  Gary%20Coleman

• [quote]He plays a homophobe btw Of course he would. Duh.

• Although it was a comedy, Conrad Bain brought a degree of dignity to the role of Mr. Drummond, and it gave the show a touch of class that helped balance off against the comedic content provided by Gary Coleman. As many people on YouTube are saying, the episode where Conrad Bain confronts a pedophile who is trying to seduce Gary Coleman and another kid, is probably his best work on that show.

• He was FAR funnier as the idiot Walter on Maude.

• Bea Arthur said Conrad Bain was a 'Damn good actor'

• R48 although he was top billed on Diffrent Strokes, he was the straight man to Gary Coleman.

• Conrad Bain's special announcement prior to the pedophile episode:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DgLlM52U_1uw%26NR%3D1

• [quote]He was FAR funnier as the idiot Walter on Maude. He played ARTHUR on Maude.

• Thanks r29.

• R52 Bea ARTHUR played Maude.

• Season 1 Intro How it all began . . .

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DiAwagCwJj-g

• Duh, r50. Which reminds me, Gary Coleman was FAR funnier when he made guest shots as a brat on The Jeffersons and Good Times than he was in Different Strokes.

  R48

• Conrad Bain was also on the pilot episode of the Facts of Life playing Phillip Drummond.

  Lisa%20Welchel

• At the link at R55, the opening credits for Season 1 show the story behind the whole show - A wealthy, white father adopting two black boys from Harlem. Not only was that unusual in the 1980's, but even today there are only a small number of black/white families. A show that was far ahead of its time.

• r58 -- I never watched that show. What was the white guy's motivation for adopting two black kids?

• They were his maid's children.

• His black housekeeper died, but before she died she made her employer (Conrad Bain) promise to take care of her two kids. Which he did.

• Arnold and Willis's mother was Mr. Drummond's housekeeper and when she died he took her sons in to raise them. I cannot fucking believe I remember that. Amazing how memory works, isn't it?

• Did Dudley actually get molested or was he almost molested? It's been way too many years for me to remember.

• They didn't show it, but Dudley was indeed molested. They show him coming out of the bathroom at the end, probably cleaning up post-coital mess. In the planned Dudley spinoff, Dudley dropped out of college, moved to Atlanta, was a gay male stripper with a drug habit, but got his shit together and is now living a quiet life with his boyfriend in Midtown. He's a manager at the Macy's in Lennox Square Mall in Buckhead.

• R48 - He was funnier on Maude, but he played Arthur (next door neighbor), not Walter.

• [quote]I'm sitting Shiva as I type. Well, get off, Mindy, you're too stout to sit on anybody.

• Just re-watched it. Dudley says that the guy "tried" to touch him. Kimberly later, while talking to her dad says, "I'm glad you guys got to Dudley before anything really terrible happened." Sort of indicating that the guy didn't get a chance to actually molest Dudley.

• The show's titles when shown in other countries are pretty funny: Arnold Arnold and Willy Arnold the Mischeivous One White and Black Harlem v. Manhattan My Friend Arnold My Family Is a Mess Little Boy Arnold Is Popular Little Rascal About Taste and Smell Any More Questions Arnold? The Funny Midget

• Sophia will put a Sicilian curse on the bike shop owner when his tree falls on Blanche's property, but not when he molests little boys? Bitch has got her priorities all out of whack.

  Dorothy%20Z.

• Arnold Arnold and Willy Arnold the Mischeivous One White and Black Harlem v. Manhattan My Friend Arnold My Family Is a Mess Little Boy Arnold Is Popular Little Rascal About Taste and Smell Any More Questions Arnold? The Funny Midget

• "It took two people plus Alan Thicke to write that song." Alan Thicke is not a person?

  Joanna%20Kerns

• By the time the credits rolled with R68's title, the show would be over.

• When Diff'rent Strokes aired in the 1980's, not only was it a couple of decades before there was a Black President, but there were still very few black public figures or celebrities in the mainstream at all. It really was ahead of its time.

• But DS didn't show blacks in positions of authority, R73. What would be really daring would be a rich black man taking in two poor white children.

• R74, it showed black people in a positive light and in an interracial family. I'm not sure how they could have done much more than they did.

• R48 and R54 - Bain played Arthur Harmon on Maude, and Rue McClanahan was his wife Vivian. Walter Findlay was played by William Macy (not to be confused with the Bill Macy from Fargo who's trapped in marriage to Felicity Whatsersnatch) and of course, Bea Arthur was Maude. God will get you for that!

  Mrs.%20Naugatuck

• "it showed black people in a positive light and in an interracial family." - It showed an interracial family, but did it really show black people in a positive light?

• But I didn't want no honky brats!

  Mr. Jefferson

• Yes, R77. It showed them as being like everybody else.

• One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of "Maude" is the gay episode where Arthur (Bain) tells Maude he's organizing a new group, to be called Fathers Against Gay Sex. Maude replies: You mean F-A-G-S?

• Another icon from my childhood has passed on. RIP Conrad Bain On a side note, It's soooooooo weird watching "Maude" and seeing Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan playing characters who are NOT Dorothy and Blanche. Clearly, "Maude" was before my time.

• True, R81. I almost forget that Bea & Rue worked together before The Golden Girls.

• I loved Maude so much. More than GG (gasp, I know).

• R82 Rue and Bette worked together prior to Golden Girls too. They were both on Mama's Family playing Aunt and Niece.

• Betty not Bette.

• Me too, r81. Maude was before my time and I never saw it until well into adulthood (I grew up watching the Golden Girls) and it was a very good show but I when I see it I half-expect Rue and Bea to break into Blanche and Dorothy any minute.

• Why wasn't Conrad Bain in the sequel where Gary Coleman ended up as an apartment manager on Avenue Q?

• Different Strokes. My 1st crush was on Todd Bridges.

• Todd Bridges was definitely hot when he was younger. Too bad he's lost his looks now.

• Was just noticing that Conrad Bain played the Grandpa in "Postcards from the Edge."

• [quote]Todd Bridges on TV Dad Conrad Bain: 'He Treated Me Better Than My Own Father' The "Diff'rent Strokes" actor says he "cried all day" over the loss of his co-star. The death of Conrad Bain at age 89 has hit no one harder than Todd Bridges, who for eight seasons played adopted son to Bain's millionaire character Mr. Drummond on the hit NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Now the sole survivor of the show's core cast -- Dana Plato committed suicide in 1999, and Gary Coleman died after falling down a flight of stairs in 2010 -- Bridges says he'll miss the man who was his surrogate father both on and off the screen. "This is probably one of the most heart-wrenching days I’ve had in a long time," Bridges, now 47, tells The Hollywood Reporter. "That Conrad’s not going to be around anymore to talk to. Whenever I needed advice, I’d call Conrad." The two first met in 1977, when a 12-year-old Bridges -- who had already starred alongside Abe Vigoda on ABC's Barney Miller spinoff, Fish -- was cast with Bain and Coleman to star in a 20-minute presentation for NBC executives. The chemistry between the trio was so effortless, the network brass bought a full season on the spot. "First time in history they bought 26 shows based on a presentation like that -- a balcony scene that me, Conrad and Gary worked on together," Bridges recalls. Diff'rent Strokes was an instant hit with audiences, which Bridges partly attributes to the country's frayed social landscape at the time: "It was during a time that race relations were kind of poor in America, and it kind of hit home that it doesn’t matter what color you are. Whoever God puts in front of you is who you’re supposed to love," he said. Bridges and Bain instantly bonded, as they'd both regularly show up early to work -- and the fatherly Bain filled a void in Bridges' life. Bridges and Bain instantly bonded, as they'd both regularly show up early to work -- and the fatherly Bain filled a void in Bridges' life. "He was a really good man," Bridges says. "He really was like Mr. Drummond. Just an all-around nice guy. He treated me better than my own father treated me." The ensuing years brought plenty of turmoil for the show's young stars, including Bridges' much-publicized addiction to crack cocaine in his 20s and an arrest for the murder of a drug dealer, for which he was later acquitted. Through it all, Bridges says, Bain was there to offer a sympathetic ear and his advice. Eventually, Bridges got clean and had a family of his own, beginning with son Spencir Bridges -- at 15, now a busy working actor who has appeared on episodes of House M.D. and iCarly and in the 2003 Eddie Murphy film Daddy Day Care. "When I had my son, I took him to Conrad's house and he loved him, played chess with him, called him his grandson," Bridges says. "He just really knew how to take care of people." "I cried all day. I can’t even cry anymore. I'll truly miss that man," he adds.

  http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/todd-bridges-tv-dad-conrad-413102

• When the interview veered toward the troubled lives of the three co-stars who had played his children on "Diff'rent Stokes — Coleman, Todd Bridges and Dana Plato — Bain was reluctant to discuss them. He called the subject "really painful" and added: "I love them." Coleman, who became a tabloid staple for his legal, financial and health woes, died at 42 in 2010 after a brain hemorrhage. Plato, who pleaded guilty to robbery and forgery charges in the early 1990s, was 34 when she died in 1999 of an apparent drug overdose. Only Bridges, who played the other adopted black son, Willis, survives. He later said he had been sexually abused by a family friend and blamed it for causing a drug addiction. Last year, Bridges spoke out in support of California legislation to protect child actors from predators. Although Bain had only been their fictional father, he later said he sometimes filled that role in real life, counseling them and reaching out to Coleman's parents. "They were in young, formative years in their lives" during the show, Bain told CNN in 2002, "and it's painful to see the results of that."

  http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-conrad-bain-20130117%2C0%2C5169346.story

• RIP. i always thought he was a pretty bad actor

• Diff'rent Strokes was by far the best show ever on TV. It had it all: high comedy, social lessons, and heartwarming family values. The writing was far above the other sitcoms of its day. Conrad Bain should have won an Emmy every year (same as Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman). They were extraodinary actors. Dana Plato was also very good. There is nothing on TV today that can touch the quality of D-Strokes. Janet Jackson was even a regular for a couple of years. GREATEST.SHOW.EVER. I am typing through my tears, as I realize everyone on that show is gone now except Todd and Charlotte. I shout out my love to both of them at this difficult time. Life's a bummer sometimes.

  Alexander

• Would've been ironic if they'd gotten Michael Jackson to play the molestation victim.

• Nedra Volz is dead too. She played Adelaid.

• [quote] Diff'rent Strokes was by far the best show ever on TV Oh honey....no. It was pleasant and professionally done....but hardly a masterful work for the ages.

  Anastasia%20Beaverhausen

• The Facts of Life was better and holds up better today. DS peaked in it's first 2 seasons, FOL was consistently good until season 7, and even then it was MUCH better than the horrible last couple season of DS.

  Need%20I%20remind%20people%20of%20red%20head%20moppet%20Sam%3F

• I'm so glad Todd got his shit together. Isn't there some evidence that both Dana and Gary were murdered by their shitty hangeron spouses? One of them took pictures of Dana while she was dead and sold them.

• FOL was a better show than DS.

• Dana Plato did not commit suicide. She overdosed on accident.

• R101, that may be the case, but the official verdict of the coroner was suicide.

• Dana P. seemed like a tortured soul. It was probably a coin toss that determined if suicide or accidental overdose went on the death cerificate. Imagine going from main character in a popular sitcom to living life in an RV. And everything that happened inbetween.

• I never cared for Diff'rent Strokes, but I loved its spin-off The Facts of Life. Facts was the greatest show ever. I loved Blair and Jo and Nat and Tootie and Mrs. G. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life, the facts of life.

  LW

• The Datalounge headline I would love to see: "Former Facts of Life Girls Present Their Holes - Mrs. G., Blair, Joe, Natalie & Tootie Show All"

  Pippa

• No dear, R105, some things are better left unseen.

• [quote]The Datalounge headline I would love to see: "Former Facts of Life Girls Present Their Holes - Mrs. G., Blair, Joe, Natalie & Tootie Show All" The only way you'd find Natalie's hole would be to roll her in flour and look for the wet spot.

• I'm ready for a new Facts of Life reunion movie. I hear there's one in the works for Lifetime. I can't wait. I just hope its all the original girls.

  Jill

• Thanks for keeping my death thread classy, gentlemen.

  Conrad%20Bain

• Antenna TV is doing a Bain tribute tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon: 3 hours of "Maude" followed by 4 hours of "Different Strokes."

• He gave me a job at his firm, Bain Capital.

  M.%20Romney

• [quote]Antenna TV is doing a Bain tribute tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon: 3 hours of "Maude" followed by 4 hours of "Different Strokes."

• Maude was a great show, but I always HATED Diff'rent Strokes.