Melanie Watson, the beloved «Black and White» actress, died at 57

Melanie Watson Bernhardta beloved actress of black and white (Diff’rent Strokes), died Friday in Colorado Springs, confirmed to TMZ the woman’s family. He was 57 years old.

Yours is one more the many misfortunes that surrounded the show’s cast since its premiere in 1978.

Robert Watsonher brother, told the American media that she was hospitalized for some bleeding problems product of her osteogenesis imperfecta, the disease she was born with that made her prone to fractures.

Melanie’s brother said that while doctors did their best to help her, she was lucky to live so long with her condition.

A photo of Melanie Watson today.

Melanie interpreta a Kathy Gordon in the series starring Gary Coleman. He participates in 4 of the 189 episodes of the program. Black and White is the only series in which he participated before retiring.

The Curse of Black and White

The “curse” label became a classic every time someone remembers the series: the sitcom that made millions laugh in the 80s ended up associated, with the passage of time, with a string of personal tragedies, early deaths, and careers that fell apart.

Melanie Watson participates in 4 episodes of Black and White.

The myth is sustained, above all, by the deaths that struck the cast. Dana Platowho played Kimberlydied in 1999 at the age of 34 after drug poisoning; Gary Colemanthe unforgettable Arnolddied in 2010 at the age of 42 after a brain hemorrhage following a fall.

They both join Dixie Carter (one of the actresses who played Maggie), who died in 2010; Conrad Bainhe “Mr Drummond”died in 2013; Charlotte Raealso remembered for her character in the universe of the series, who died in 2018; and other names linked to that cast or its television environment, such as Nedra Volz (2003) y Mary Ann Moband (2014), another of the actresses who played the role of Maggie at different stages.

The main cast of the series Black and White. Photo: AP

But the “curse” is not explained only by deaths: also by public falls. The most cited case is that of Todd Bridges (Willis), who went through a period of problematic drug use in the midst of his fame and, for years, alternated attempts at recovery with episodes that took him to court.

In that dark period he accumulated arrests and cases that persecuted him in the media: from arrests for drug possession and problems related to weapons, to a trial for a shooting of which he was finally acquitted.

Gary Coleman, Conrad Bain and Todd Bridges, three of the protagonists of Black and White.

Over the years, Bridges said that he managed to break that spiral, rehabilitated himself and maintained a life of sobriety, becoming the example of a “survivor” of that tragic narrative that surrounds Black and White. For this reason, when we talk about the “curse”, its story usually appears as the other side: the one who hit rock bottom, had causes and scandals, but managed to come back.