Conrad Bain, who played a jovial dad on the long-running sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes,” died Monday night in Livermore, Calif. He was 89.
On “Strokes,” Bain played Phil Drummond, a wealthy white Manhattanite with a teenage daughter (Dana Plato) who adopts African-American siblings Willis and Arnold Jackson (Todd Bridges, Gary Coleman).
The series (1978-86) turned the diminutive Coleman into a star.
Previously, Bain had co-starred as Maude’s (Bea Arthur) flustered next-door-neighbor, Dr. Arthur Harmon, on the CBS sitcom “Maude.”