Coleman had asked to be kept alive, documents show

Despite having been taken off life support by his live-in ex-wife, Shannon Price, actor Gary Coleman left an Advance Health Care Directive with the box checked for "Choice to Prolong Life: I want my life to be prolonged as long as possible within the limits of generally accepted health care standards."

Price, 24, did, however, have power-of-attorney "to make health care decisions for me," according to the document that Coleman signed Oct. 12, 2006, and which was posted at TMZ.com Monday. The actor died May 28, at age 42, from what the death certificate, also released Monday, said was a "closed head injury" complicated by "chronic renal failure."

Price has said Coleman's doctors "advised me that he wasn't going to make it," and that "it was best for him to go and not suffer."

But Coleman's agent, Robert Malcolm - his backup health-care proxy - told RadarOnline.com Monday that Coleman's ex-manager Dion Mial and former "Diff'rent Strokes" co-star Todd Bridges "begged her not to pull the plug."

Utah Valley Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Janet Frank said the hospital was investigating the new document, and told the site, "I can't talk about any of this because it's part of his medical record . . . We have to verify that for ourselves before we would be able to do anything with it."

In other developments, Fourth District Judge James Taylor in Provo, Utah, near Coleman's home, ordered that the actor's remains be cremated after 48 hours, The Associated Press reports. Taylor appointed an independent attorney to oversee Coleman's estate and the cremation pending resolution of a dispute between Price and Coleman's ex-girlfriend/manager Anna Gray, who both claim to be administrators of his estate. Gray is named in a 2005 will, and Taylor is allowing her 48 hours to travel from Portland, Ore., to view the body.