Dabney Coleman
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Dabney Wharton Coleman (January 3, 1932 – May 16, 2024) was an American actor. Coleman's best known films include 9 to 5 (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), WarGames (1983), Cloak & Dagger (1984), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), You've Got Mail (1998), Inspector Gadget (1999), Recess: School's Out (2001), Moonlight Mile (2002), and Rules Don't Apply (2016). Coleman's television roles included the title characters of Buffalo Bill (1983–1984) and The Slap Maxwell Story (1987–1988), as well as Burton Fallin on The Guardian (2001–2004), the voice of Principal Peter Prickly on Recess (1997–2001), and Louis "The Commodore" Kaestner on Boardwalk Empire (2010–2011). He won one Primetime Emmy Award from six nominations and one Golden Globe Award from three nominations. Coleman was a character actor with roles in well over 60 films and television programs to his credit. He trained with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City from 1958 to 1960. Coleman made his Broadway debut in the short-lived A Call on Kuprin in 1961. In a 1964 episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre titled "The Threatening Eye", Coleman played private investigator William Gunther. Two years later, he played Dr. Leon Bessemer with Bonnie Scott as his wife Judy, neighbors and friends of the protagonist in Season 1 of That Girl, episode 3, "Never Change a Diaper on Opening Night". Noted for his moustache which he grew in 1973, he appeared in the sitcom wearing horn-rimmed glasses and with no facial hair. Other early roles in his career included a U.S. Olympic skiing team coach in Downhill Racer (1969), a high-ranking fire chief in The Towering Inferno (1974), and a wealthy Westerner in Bite the Bullet (1975). He portrayed an FBI agent in Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975).
Known for
Credits
The Towering Inferno (1974)
as Deputy Chief #1
You've Got Mail (1998)
as Nelson Fox
Stuart Little (1999)
as Dr. Beechwood
WarGames (1983)
as McKittrick
Midway (1976)
as Captain Murray Arnold
Inspector Gadget (1999)
as Chief Quimby
Tootsie (1982)
as Ron Carlisle
Nine to Five (1980)
as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
as Milburn Drysdale
Recess: School's Out (2001)
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
Domino (2005)
as Drake Bishop
Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20 (2026)
as Franklin M. Hart Jr (archive footage)
Amos & Andrew (1993)
as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
Dragnet (1987)
as Jerry Caesar
The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)
as Cooper
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
as Martin Price
Young Doctors in Love (1982)
as Dr. Joseph Prang
Rules Don't Apply (2016)
as Raymond Holliday
On Golden Pond (1981)
as Bill Ray
The Scalphunters (1968)
as Jed
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
as Grandpa
Downhill Racer (1969)
as Mayo
Bite the Bullet (1975)
as Jack Parker
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade (2003)
as Principal Prickly (voice)
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
as Salesman
Cloak & Dagger (1984)
as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
Recess: All Growed Down (2003)
as Principal Prickley (voice)
Plaza Suite (1987)
as Jesse Kiplinger
Rolling Thunder (1977)
as Maxwell
When She Was Bad... (1979)
as Jack Wilson
Moonlight Mile (2002)
as Mike Mulcahey
I Love My Wife (1970)
as Frank Donnelly
My Date with the President's Daughter (1998)
as George Richmond
Where the Heart Is (1990)
as Stewart McBain
Char·ac·ter (2012)
as Self
Clifford (1994)
as Gerald Ellis
Kiss My Act (2001)
as Henry
How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)
as Jack Heintzel
Modern Problems (1981)
as Mark Winslow
Short Time (1990)
as Burt Simpson
There Goes the Neighborhood (1992)
as Jeffrey Babitt
The Trouble with Girls (1969)
as Harrison Wilby
Melvin and Howard (1980)
as Judge Keith Hayes
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street (2001)
as Principal Peter Prickly
The Dove (1974)
as Charles Huntley
Night of 100 Stars II (1985)
as Self
The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
as Dave McCoy
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
as Self
Dying Room Only (1973)
as Bob Mitchell
Never Forget (1991)
as William Cox
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood (1987)
as Self
Bad Ronald (1974)
as Mr. Wood
The Slender Thread (1965)
as Charlie
Hot to Trot (1988)
as Walter Sawyer
The Making of Midway (2001)
as Self (archive footage)
Target Earth (1998)
as Senator Ben Arnold
Moving Target (1973)
as Morty Raskin
A Witch's Way of Love (1997)
as Joel
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped (1995)
as Arthur Milo
Exiled (1998)
as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
Callie & Son (1981)
as Randall Bordeaux
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1986)
as Dabney Coleman
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale (2000)
as John Kennedy
Meet the Applegates (1990)
as Aunt Bea
Devil's Food (1996)
as Seymour Kecker
Savage! (1973)
as Ted Seligson
The President's Plane Is Missing (1973)
as Sen. Bert Haines
Viva Knievel! (1977)
as Ralph Thompson
North Dallas Forty (1979)
as Emmett Hunter
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
as Executive Officer
Nothing Personal (1980)
as Dickerson
Must Be Santa (1999)
Actor
The Case of the Baltimore Girls (1978)
as George Bates
Still Working 9 to 5 (2022)
as Self
Kiss Me... Kill Me (1976)
as Capt. Logan
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story (1987)
as Ed Sigel
Maybe Baby (1988)
as Hal
Giving It Up (1999)
as Johnathan Gallant
Returning Home (1975)
as Al Stephenson
Pray TV (1980)
as Marvin Fleece
The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970)
as Agent Shepard
Judicial Consent (1994)
as Charles Mayron
Black Fist (1977)
as Heineken
Lincoln (1992)
as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor (1980)
as Rick Bessett
Maneaters Are Loose! (1978)
as McCallum
More Than Friends (1978)
as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
House of Evil (1974)
Actor
Sworn to Silence (1987)
as Martin Costigan
Murrow (1986)
as William Paley
Hard Four (2007)
as Spray Loomis
The Climb (2002)
as Mack
Taken (1999)
as Ethan Grover