Gary Coleman was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s thanks to his lead role on the popular sitcom Diff’rent Strokes, and his subsequent career and life marked him as a preeminent cautionary tale about child actors in the entertainment industry.

Peacock’s Gary, premiering August 29, is a thorough non-fiction recap of the rise and fall of the pint-sized phenom, whose mega-watt charm and expert comedic timing made him a sensation, and whose later years were marred by lawsuits, scandals, misery, and premature death at age 42. As it turns out, his demise is ultimately the main reason to check out this bio-documentary, since more than one participant suggests that Coleman didn’t pass away due to bad luck but, rather, to foul play—and that his wife was responsible.

Those accusations come at the conclusion of Gary, courtesy of Coleman’s long-time BFF (and one-time business manager) Dion Mial, as well as his friends Darren Nord and Brandi Buys. Nord and Buys knew him during his final years in Santaquin, Utah, where he moved following production on his 2006 movie Church Ball, and where he met his bride-to-be Shannon Price.

Coleman died on May 28, 2010, two days after suffering a collapse that led to intracranial hemorrhaging and, shortly thereafter, cardiac arrest. His fatal tumble occurred on the first floor of the home he shared with Price, for whom he was preparing food following his latest dialysis treatment. The police ruled it an accident, yet Nord says that it was “suspicious” and Mial—who points out that, given Coleman’s 4’ 8’’ stature, it would have been hard to suffer such grave injuries from a fall—states “we were absolutely stumped, because there were way too many questions with no answers.”

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All fingers are pointed at Price in Gary, who defends herself (not for the first time) by asserting, “I didn’t touch him…nothing happened.” Price’s 911 call indicates that this is, to some extent, literally true, since she tells the operator that she doesn’t want to put pressure on the back of Coleman’s wounded head (“No, I can't, it's like all bloody, and I’m not, and I'm not trying to…he, he’s not with it”) and that she has to flee the area because, as someone who suffers seizures, she can’t raise her stress levels (“I don’t want to be traumatized right now”).

Couple that with the fact that Price didn’t accompany Coleman in the ambulance to the hospital and pulled his plug two days later—even though Coleman’s wishes were to be kept alive for two weeks in the event of a catastrophe—and it’s no surprise that Coleman’s former girlfriend Anna Gray maintains, "I think [Price’s] actions speak volumes, and I don’t have to say much more than that.”

The specter of murder hangs over Gary, thereby compounding the already well-publicized lows of Coleman’s life story. Of those, the most notorious involves Coleman’s parents Sue and Willie Coleman, both of whom participate in the documentary, if do little to persuasively deny their malfeasance.

Over the course of Coleman’s career, the actor made more than $18 million, and yet he saw virtually none of it—motivating him, in 1989, to sue them as well as agent Victor Perillo, his business manager Anita DeThomas, and his lawyers, who all together took 42.5 percent of his pre-tax earnings. Worse, money earmarked for a protected savings account had been moved to a pension whose beneficiaries were Sue and Willie. Now as then, Sue and Willie argue that they had no idea such misappropriation was taking place. Still, it forever ruined their relationship with Coleman and exacerbated his feeling that everyone viewed him as merely a cash cow.

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Much of this has long been part of the public record, but Gary benefits from input from Coleman’s parents, Perillo, and others close to the actor, including his Diff’rent Strokes co-star Todd Bridges, who recalls (along with other staffers) Willie’s on-set arrogance and the corrosive influence it had on his son.

This is all less salacious as it is simply sad, considering that Coleman was, from an early age, a magnetic screen presence whose chubby cheeks and diminutive size (caused by drugs taken to treat a serious kidney problem) made him the toast of mid-’80s Hollywood. As Arnold Jackson, a Black kid who moved with his older brother Willis (Fields) into the Park Avenue home of wealthy white Mr. Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato), Coleman was an instant hit who stole the show, complete with his memorable catchphrase, “What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?”

As he grew older and sought to distance himself from Arnold, Coleman came to despise “that line.” However, attempting to establish himself as an adult—say, in one of the superhero or police officer roles he coveted—proved impossible, adding to Coleman’s depression and anger. A talk-show clip of Coleman refusing to perform his catchphrase reveals this frustration, as does a later snippet of him lashing out at a TV host. The portrait that emerges is of a man who, betrayed by his body and those closest to him, and denied a normal childhood and adulthood by his experiences in the entertainment industry, was hopelessly bitter and unhappy.

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When Coleman met Price, it seemed like his fortunes had changed for the better. Alas, as Gary relays via scenes from an unaired reality show, their marriage was a rocky one beset by charges that Price was in it only for the money (she denies this) and was physically abusive to her spouse (“Like, people smack each other. They hit each other. People do it. You know, if you deny it, you're crazy").

Most damning of all, Price sold a photo of herself and Coleman on his deathbed, which Price claims was necessary (because people needed to see what he went through?) and Mial describes as “one of the most depraved acts I've ever seen perpetrated on another human being in my life.”

Price posits herself as a loving wife throughout Gary, and to be fair, there’s no evidence that she did anything illegal with regards to Coleman. Nonetheless, her relationship comes across as the final blow struck against an actor who referred to himself as “God’s punching bag.”