Chicago museum to pay tribute to Gary Coleman

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The late actor Gary Coleman — who lived his final years in Santaquin, Utah, trying to find refuge from his fame — will be honored with an exhibit opening next month at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications.

The exhibit, "The Life and Times of Gary Coleman," will feature personal and professional artifacts from Coleman's career, donated by his parents, William and Sue Coleman. Sony Television is donating video of Coleman's work, notably his years playing the precocious Arnold Jackson on "Diff'rent Strokes." Norman Lear (who produced the series) and Fred Silverman (the NBC executive who green-lighted the show) will appear in video interviews.

Coleman is a native of Zion, Illinois, and died in a Provo hospital in 2010 after taking a fall in his Santaquin home. According to the website Chicagoist, the exhibit will focus more on the happy times of Coleman's early career, and less on his later years when he dealt with health issues and at one point sued his parents and managers over the handling of his TV earnings.

The exhibit runs June 26 through Sept. 19.