Gary Coleman Parents Want Body

Well this is shaping up to be good and ugly: Gary Coleman’s long estranged parents — Sue and Willie Coleman — are seeking custody of the late actor’s remains. The Colemans want Gary’s body returned to the star’s boyhood home in Illinois after learning that their son divorced companion Shannon Price in 2008. The iconic ex- child star died in Utah last week after suffering an intracranial brain hemorrhage. He was 42.

Coleman’s former manager and family spokesman Victor Perillo believes that although Gary gave Shannon health care directive, which allowed her to make health care decisions for him when he couldn’t make them for himself, Coleman’s parents are the legal custodians of his body.

“The arrangement we’re working on now is to get Gary back to his next of kin, which is his parents. The funeral home has been notified, the sheriff’s office, we’ve notified them that there is to be no communication on where the body is to go unless its dealt with legally with Gary’s next of kin, and that’s the way it stands right now,” Perillo told The Associated Press Thursday.

In 1989, Gary famously sued Sue — a longtime nurse — and Willie, and retired forklift operator, in addition to a number of business associates, for squadering his $18 million fortune. Gary — who once made more than $50,000 an episode playing the adorable Arnold Jackson on Diff’rent Strokes – was so broke by his 30s, he was working as a security guard to make ends meet.