Best of 2010

Tribute: The Stars We Lost This Year

From Gary Coleman to Rue McClanahan, we say goodbye to the people who left their mark onscreen and off

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GARY COLEMAN

"I have four strikes against me. I'm black, I'm short, I'm intelligent, and I have a medical condition," 4 ft. 8 in. Diff'rent Strokes star Gary Coleman told PEOPLE in 1999. Just more than decade later, on May 28, 2010, the biggest child actor of the '80s – who spent much of his adult life struggling to make peace with his faded fame – died from a brain hemorrhage at age 42. Even in death, Coleman tried to keep Hollywood at bay: In his two-page will, he wanted only "those who have no financial ties to me and who can look each other in the eyes and say they really cared personally for Gary Coleman" to attend his wake.