06/11/2021 18:34
Clarín.com
International
shows
Updated 06/11/2021 6:34 PM
In the series
"Black and White
",
Arnold
and
Willis Jackson
, two African-American brothers born in the New York neighborhood of Harlem, are orphaned and adopted by
Philip Drummond
, a man of a very good economic position who lives with his daughter
Kimberly
and the housekeeper in a penthouse on Park Avenue, in one of the richest areas of the city.
The stories that are happening between them - when little was said about discrimination and the need for integration - are delicious and circulate among topics of advanced for the time.
In addition, each of the characters was recorded in memory.
Although, over the years it became known that the personal life of the actors who played the assembled brothers was not so charming and several tragedies crossed their destinies.
Willis and Arnold, the adorable brothers from "Black and White."
Willis Jackson's stormy adolescence
Willis
, the actor
Todd Bridges
who played the eldest of the Harlem brothers, is the only survivor of the main core of the show and also had a very tough personal history (
Dana Plato
,
Kimberly
, died of an overdose and
Gary Coleman,
Arnold
,
at age 42, due to a cerebral hemorrhage).
Bridges
, son of actress and director
Betty Alice Pryor
, while composing the character of
Willis
entered adolescence and began with an internal torment that much later he was able to process and bring to light.
As it became known many years later, he lived with a secret that is torturous and that even his castmates did not know.
His manager at that time abused him and psychically injured him to the point that he blocked his ability to express what he felt and his possibilities to grow and position himself in his career.
That led him to try to erase the episodes of his childhood from his head.
To such an extent is his pain for those years, that already 55 years old, he still tries to escape when he is recognized and greeted with a
"What are you talking about Willis?"
, the classic
Arnold
hose
.
Todd Bridges is 55 years old.
He is dedicated to acting and production.
Drugs, arrests and depression
His escape from his inner nightmares was drugs.
At the age of twelve he was already consuming regularly and some time later he became addicted to crack, one of the hardest substances.
"I was going to work under the influence of drugs and I was only 12 years old."
The trigger for this situation, which he could only count for a few years, was the constant sexual abuse by his representative from those years.
"But my father took his side. What hurt me the most in life is that he called me a liar," he told a while ago in an interview on Fox News, when he was encouraged to release his ghosts and reveal his shades.
Willis from "Black and White" was able to get out of drug hell.
"My own companions did not know the drama that I was going through. Even in the program there were episodes in which we touched on the subject of pedophilia and nobody suspected," he confessed in 2010, in his book,
Killing Willis
, "Killing Willis."
Willis, after "Black and White"
At the end of the cycle - which lasted from 78 to 86 - he lived on the street, weighed 50 kilos and was accused of the murder of a Los Angeles dealer.
He was imprisoned for nine months and was acquitted after two trials and thanks to the defense of the lawyer Johnnie Cochran, a professional well known for carrying out media cases such as that of OJ Simpson.
Situations of depression and another arrest followed.
This time for drug possession.
They granted him bail and there he understood that he had to start rehabilitation.
"I decided to go and recover. I was not quite ready yet at that time, so when they admitted me I was very angry. I went crazy in the hospital," he said.
"Black and White" aired from 78 to 86 and was a worldwide success.
At the same time he clung to religion and with various tools at hand he was able to put his life back together.
He has two children and is dedicated to acting.
Although without the brilliance it had in the years of
"Black and white"
and due to economic necessity, it came to accept cameos and interventions in reality shows.
Today it is divided between series and films "class B" and a role as producer.
"Producing is a lot more fun than acting. I don't have to work hard to learn the lyrics, just work to drink coffee," he said in a post on Twitter.
A difficult story that took him many years to heal and rebuild.