List of Diff'rent Strokes characters

This is a list of characters from the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes.

Main characters

Phillip Drummond

Phillip Drummond is a fictional character on the hit television series, Diff'rent Strokes, he was portrayed by Emmy Award nominee and Golden Globe winning television actor, Conrad Bain, who previously worked on the All in the Family spinoff Maude (1972-1978).

Phillip is a friendly, wealthy white widower, who runs Trans-Allied, Inc., and was born December 3, 1931 in Manhattan, New York.

Phillip has a daughter, named Kimberly, and two adopted African American sons, Willis, and his younger brother Arnold Jackson. He also had a somewhat eccentric older sister named Sophia. Arnold and Willis's mother, Lucy Jackson, worked as a housekeeper for Phillip Drummond many years ago, but her death-bed wish was that Mr. Drummond would take care of her two sons. In the first episode of the series, Phillip welcomes Arnold and Willis into his home. Arnold quickly becomes attached to his new environment, but Willis nearly ruins it for him by hastily deciding that he and Arnold will move back to Harlem.