Todd Bridges (Actor)

Todd Bridges in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo: David Klein / Getty Images)

A child actor known as much for the character he played on TV as for his real life problems, Todd Bridges has overcome his share of obstacles. Bridges moved to Los Angeles with his family at the age of six and made his first television appearance with his entire family in a Jell-O commercial. His mother was working as an actress and his father had become a successful agent. This opened a door for Bridges in the entertainment world that was still largely closed off to African Americans and he began working regularly. Though his parents' connections gave Bridges an opportunity in the industry, it was his talent that would ultimately lead him to success.

As a child, Bridges was cast in high profile recurring roles on several television shows including "Little House on the Prairie" (1974) and "The Waltons" (1972). But Bridge's big break came in 1978 when he was cast in a groundbreaking new interracial sitcom, "Diff'rent Strokes." The show sought to unite two very different cultural backgrounds in a unique interracial setting. Conrad Baine starred as a millionaire widower who adopted the two black children of his housekeeper after she died. Bridges played Willis, the older of the two brothers, starring opposite Gary Coleman, whose "What you talkin''bout Willis" catch phrase would be forever remembered in collective pop culture consciousness. Dana Plato played the 16 year-old daughter of Baine. The show was lighthearted but also tackled serious issues such as drug use and child molestation and often met racial themes head on. "Diff'rent Strokes" was a phenomenal success and Bridges was a household name at the age of 15.

After the series ended in 1986, Bridges found himself in a situation not uncommon to child celebrities. He was only 21, yet his run on "Diff'rent Strokes" left him feeling like a washed-up veteran. To make matters worse, overcoming the typecast of Willis would be a problem that would plague him for the rest of his career. Bridges soon descended rapidly into a life of drugs and crime. A series of arrests for petty crimes culminated with a 1989 incident where Bridges was charged with shooting a drug dealer in a South Central L.A. crack house after a four day cocaine binge. Bridges was jailed and held on $2 million dollars bail. He was not alone in his post-Strokes trouble; co-star Dana Plato would have her share of run-ins with the law before dying of a drug overdose in 1999 and Gary Coleman would eventually be charged with assault after punching an autograph seeker. Johnnie Cochran defended Bridges and he was acquitted of the shooting. Bridges was arrested again in 1993 for possession of methamphetamines and a firearm, but the actor insists he has been clean and sober since that time. Indeed, his career did begin to pick up somewhat in the mid and late nineties; most notably, Bridges wrote, directed, produced and starred in the story of his own life, aptly titled "Building Bridges" (1999).

The most important break for Bridges in over two decades came in 2002 when he was cast in the CBS soap opera "The Young and the Restless" as bad-boy Juice. Perhaps not the role of a lifetime, his turn on the popular soap is a showcase of sorts, if not for his acting ability than certainly for his tenacity and will to move forward, bringing depth and experience to a role he has exhausted in his real life.