By Iris Blocks
They were an odd couple: a porn star whose sexual partners number over 2,000 and a former child star who was a real-life 40-year-old virgin. But when news hit about the death of former child star Gary Coleman, his passing struck up some fond remembrances for Ron Jeremy.
“I loved his smile,” said Ron Jeremy, who worked with the diminutive star of Diff’rent Strokes professionally in four projects.
“Getting to know Coleman wasn’t easy,” Ron Jeremy told AVN. “Gary was very serious sometimes. … If he didn’t know you, he’d say hi and just keep walking. … He didn’t want to spend a lot of time with people he didn’t know.”
Underneath that shy exterior was a playful soul. “He loved toys,” Ron Jeremy said. “He didn’t experience a real childhood,” he added, as explanation for why Coleman found such satisfaction in such pursuits as playing with model trains.
The differences between the unlikely partners were highlighted when they both appeared on The Weakest Link in 2002. Talking about their stint on the game show, Jeremy recalled, “I voted him off, and then Corey Feldman voted me off. That was the show where after Annie announced that I had been with thousands of women, Gary said, ‘I’m the opposite of Ron Jeremy—I’m a virgin.’ ”
And, added Ron Jeremy, Coleman was “happy to be so.”
Coleman also shared a television set with Jeremy in 2004, when the porn star was on The Surreal Life with an oddball assortment of characters that included Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker), Vanilla Ice and Erik Estrada. Gary Coleman had a guest-starring role, but he stormed off the set. According to Ron Jeremy, Coleman was annoyed when Vanilla Ice repeatedly repeated Coleman’s catch phrase from Diff’rent Strokes, “Whatchu talking’ ’bout, Willis?”…