In his memoir "Killing Willis," actor Todd Bridges takes the reader through his life as a popular child star to his descent into drug abuse to his ultimate redemption, thanks to religion and rehab. Unfortunately, it's not a very interesting trip.
At age 12, Bridges was cast as Willis Jackson on the hit '80s sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes." It was the role of a lifetime for the young actor, who first got a taste of fame on the "Barney Miller" spin-off "Fish."
Bridges flourished in his new career. He developed a brotherlike relationship with Gary Coleman, who played Willis' precocious little brother, Arnold. He found father figures in co-star Conrad Bain and others on the set. He enjoyed a close friendship with Dana Plato, who played his adopted sister, Kimberly Drummond. Plato introduced him to pot and sex. He thought it was a great life.
But Bridges' life began to fracture. He had grown up in a home where he was physically and verbally abused by his father. He was molested by his publicist. He was subjected to racial discrimination. Kids ostracized him and called him the N-word. He was upstaged on the set by an increasingly bratty Coleman, the breakout star of "Diff'rent Strokes." (Bridges defends Coleman's behavior, saying it was brought on by Coleman's parents and his "people," not by the young star himself.)
When "Diff'rent Strokes" ended, Bridges started on the road to ruin. He began using hard-core drugs, eventually selling them to make money. His TV earnings had been mismanaged by incompetent accountants, and he was broke. Acting jobs were scarce, not because he couldn't get them, but because he didn't want to take time out from doing drugs to work. He had several serious run-ins with the law.
At times "Killing Willis" reads like the manual from a 12-step program rather than an honest account of a troubled life: "There were a lot of dark forces in my life pushing me toward dark feelings and unhealthy ways of repressing my pain," Bridges writes.
While Bridges takes full responsibility for bad choices and drug abuse, he is paranoid and defensive about other aspects of his life, including his brushes with the law. He repeatedly insists that his troubles stemmed from being targeted and harassed by a racist police force in Los Angeles, and that he never really did anything wrong — well, not much, anyway.
"Killing Willis" has its interesting moments, but there's not enough juicy gossip for this to be a "Diff'rent Strokes" tell-all (although there are some interesting tidbits), and it's not emotionally honest enough to be inspirational. The book is also hampered by a rather pedestrian writing style.
Bridges' fans might find enough in "Killing Willis" to hold their interest — but it's not likely.
e-mail: jwilliamson@desnews.com