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Dana Plato: Southern California
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Dana Michelle Plato was born in Maywood, California on November 7, 1964. Her birth mother (Linda Strain who was a 16-year-old unwed mother already struggling to support an 18-month-old child) gave her up for adoption as an infant and she was taken in by a Southern California couple (adopted by Dean and Florine 'Kay' Plato in June 1965) who soon enough guided her into acting. Dana landed roles on over 100 TV commercials as a child, including appearances for KFC, Arco and Dole bananas. Her questionable luck kicked in early on -- Dana was chosen for the lead role in "The Exorcist" but her adoptive mother refused to let her appear in such a film. So while Linda Blair went on to huge stardom, Dana was left with roles in flicks like 1975's "Beyond the Bermuda Triangle."
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Dana Michelle Plato (1964-1999) endured a roller coaster life of career sabotage, drug addiction, pornography, armed robbery, and Gary Coleman. Placed up for adoption by a sixteen year-old, baby Dana was taken in by an overachieving southern California mother who gently guided her as best she could toward an acting career. Starting at the age of seven, Dana was regularly thrust before the camera, appearing in over one hundred ads for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Noxema, Arco, Hallmark and other high-profile sponsors. During numerous retakes of one commercial for Dole fruit cocktail, Plato ended up extremely ill after consuming eighty-two bananas which expanded in her stomach.
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Plato was born on November 7, 1964, in Maywood, California to Linda Strain (although other sources state November 1, 1963), an unwed mother who was 16 at the time of Dana's birth and was already caring for an 18-month-old child. Strain put her infant daughter up for adoption and in June 1965, Dean and Florine "Kay" Plato adopted the child [1], raising her in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. She attended Sutter Jr. High School in Canoga Park, California.[2]
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Plato was adopted as an infant and grew up in Southern California. In 1984, she married guitarist Lanny Lambert and gave birth to their son Tyler... the two divorced in 1990.[3] Plato was arrested twice during the early 1990s, and ultimately died of an overdose after a long battle with addiction.
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