slider728 reviewed on 5/27/2010 + 44 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

Just like almost every kid born in the 70s, I was a fan of Diffrent Strokes. I was young and can barely remember the premise behind the show, but I always remembered the characters of Arnold, Willis, and Kimberly. Then throughout the years, I watched the actors behind my favorite characters fall from grace one by one. When Todd Bridges came out with his book, I could not wait to hear his stories in his own words.

Killing Willis is the autobiography of Todd Bridges, probably best known as the actor behind the character Willis Jackson of Diffrent Strokes. The book covers his life from his childhood to about the year 2000. As a child star, he was on top of the world. As an adult, he has had a well published and followed downward spiral to rock bottom and below.

The author grew up in a middle class hold in an environment mixed with the professional acting successes of his family with turmoil internal to his family. While at the height of his career, he is then betrayed by one of the people closest to him. As it was a different time, he really had no where to turn and had to deal with the embarrassment and anger on his own. The portions on Diffrent Strokes was eye opening. The behind the scenes issues were something I did not expect. Finally, after the show ended, his life began a downward spiral of crime and drugs hat lasted for years. In the end, he pulls himself out of his own personal dungeon and began building what most people would call a normal life.

Overall, the book was a quick and fascinating read. There were two things that I did not especially care for about the book. The first is throughout the book, Mr. Bridges constantly brings up how everyone focuses on the dark part of his life filled with crime, drugs, and incarceration. However, this is one of the main subjects of his book if not the dominant subject. It seemed contradictory that he thought people should forgive him for his past sins, but it is OK for him to exploit them for what I presume is for his personal profit (not that I have any issues with that, it just seemed like a big contradiction in his thinking and story). Second, the book basically ends with the death of Dana Plato, which was right around 2000. There really is not much mention of his life after that point. Perhaps his life after that point was not worthy of putting in a book, but it just seemed odd that an autobiography of a living person ends 10 years before it is published.

Personally, I enjoyed reading the book very much. The story of Todd Bridges is one of a broken man picking himself back up and through determination and hard work, pulled himself back together. The author is blunt about his criminal past and seems to be forthcoming about the crimes he did and did not commit (though I have no idea if he is telling the truth or not) and has owned up to his past mistakes. If you are a fan of Diffrent Strokes, interested in Todd Bridges, or just like to read about celebrities at their worst, this is definitely a book worth reading.

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