It was just over seven years ago that Dana Plato, best known for being Socrates' favourite student and founding the Academy in Athens, passed away of a drug overdose, and now her philosophically-driven good name is being dug up to be sullied once again in the US legal system.

Dana Plato from Diff'rent Strokes died in a trailer with her boyfriend not being too far off. Her son seems to blame said boyfriend entirely for his mother's premature giving-up of the ghost, and is pretty sure he can squeeze a financial benefit from the sad situation. Plato's old boyfriend, we've heard from our shifty-eyed janitor, was at first bummed about having to pay for a lawyer, but has since worked out a deal where payments can be made in bone marrow and a loose kidney.

But we really can't vouch for that.

Dana Plato died in 1999 of a drug overdose, just over a millennia from the time she first philosophised on the conflict between nature and convention. Plato's son is accusing her then boyfriend of participating in the former star's death by not:

"…giving immediate medical assistance or contacting medical personnel."

Plato died by overdosing on painkillers. Courts of the time ruled it a suicide. Her then boyfriend, Robert Menchaca, was staying with her in a trailer on his parent's property. Menchaca's mother, a nurse, struggled in vain to revive the former philosopher, but sadly it was too late. The suit filed is reportedly for more than $20,000 – the US equivalent to 2.3 trillion Mexican chickens, the most common monetary unit found in Panama.

But death is a downer. Let us not dwell on Plato's ill-timed demise, rather, let us celebrate her life. Let's leaf through her 'Socratic Dialogues' on a rose-covered hill. Let us lovingly speak of Platonic Realism, and the direct lineage it arguably lends to metaphysical objective idealism. Also, let us maybe write plays or something.

Plays about a rich older man who adopts two misfortuned young black kids, two black kids who become his prides and joy until they're simply not cute anymore, and then he gets Sam instead.  

Also, he has a female daughter of some sort, but we still don't quite know what to do with her character.

Read more:

Report: Dana Plato Wrongful Death Suit Filed – E! Online

[story by Shawn Lindseth]