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
Stuart Little (1999)
as Dr. Beechwood
WarGames (1983)
as McKittrick
You've Got Mail (1998)
as Nelson Fox
Inspector Gadget (1999)
as Chief Quimby
Midway (1976)
as Captain Murray Arnold
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
as Milburn Drysdale
The Towering Inferno (1974)
as Deputy Chief #1
Tootsie (1982)
as Ron Carlisle
Nine to Five (1980)
as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
Recess: School's Out (2001)
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
Lincoln (1992)
as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
On Golden Pond (1981)
as Bill Ray
Dragnet (1987)
as Jerry Caesar
Domino (2005)
as Drake Bishop
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade (2003)
as Principal Prickly (voice)
Downhill Racer (1969)
as Mayo
Rules Don't Apply (2016)
as Raymond Holliday
Bite the Bullet (1975)
as Jack Parker
Amos & Andrew (1993)
as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
as Martin Price
Rolling Thunder (1977)
as Maxwell
Moonlight Mile (2002)
as Mike Mulcahey
The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970)
as Agent Shepard
Cloak & Dagger (1984)
as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
There Goes the Neighborhood (1992)
as Jeffrey Babitt
The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)
as Cooper
Hot to Trot (1988)
as Walter Sawyer
Clifford (1994)
as Gerald Ellis
Young Doctors in Love (1982)
as Dr. Joseph Prang
Bad Ronald (1974)
as Mr. Wood
This Property Is Condemned (1966)
as Salesman
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
as Grandpa
Modern Problems (1981)
as Mark Winslow
Short Time (1990)
as Burt Simpson
Callie & Son (1981)
as Randall Bordeaux
Recess: All Growed Down (2003)
as Principal Prickley (voice)
Exiled (1998)
as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
Giving It Up (1999)
as Johnathan Gallant
Hard Four (2007)
as Spray Loomis
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped (1995)
as Arthur Milo
The Scalphunters (1968)
as Jed
My Date with the President's Daughter (1998)
as President George Richmond
Night of 100 Stars II (1985)
as Self
Kiss My Act (2001)
as Henry
Melvin and Howard (1980)
as Judge Keith Hayes
The Dove (1974)
as Charles Huntley
The Trouble with Girls (1969)
as Harrison Wilby
Savage (1973)
as Ted Seligson
The Slender Thread (1965)
as Charlie
Where the Heart Is (1990)
as Stewart McBain
Black Fist (1977)
as Heineken
North Dallas Forty (1979)
as Emmett Hunter
The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
as Dave McCoy
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood (1987)
as Self
Pray TV (1980)
as Marvin Fleece
When She Was Bad... (1979)
as Jack Wilson
Char·ac·ter (2012)
as Self
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street (2001)
as Principal Peter Prickly
Nothing Personal (1980)
as Dickerson
Kiss Me... Kill Me (1976)
as Capt. Logan
Meet the Applegates (1990)
as Aunt Bea
The Climb (2002)
as Mack
Viva Knievel! (1977)
as Ralph Thompson
Cinderella Liberty (1973)
as Executive Officer
Never Forget (1991)
as William Cox
A Witch's Way of Love (1997)
as Joel
Plaza Suite (1987)
as Jesse Kiplinger
Maybe Baby (1988)
as Hal
Moving Target (1973)
Actor
Target Earth (1998)
as Senator Ben Arnold
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson (1990)
as Self
More Than Friends (1978)
as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)
as Jack Heintzel
Still Working 9 to 5 (2022)
as Self
Dying Room Only (1973)
as Bob Mitchell
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1986)
as Dabney Coleman
Sworn to Silence (1987)
as Martin Costigan
I Love My Wife (1970)
as Frank Donnelly
Returning Home (1975)
as Al Stephenson
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975)
as Paul Mathison
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale (2000)
as John Kennedy
House of Evil (1974)
Actor
Must Be Santa (1999)
Actor
Judicial Consent (1994)
as Charles Mayron
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story (1987)
as Ed Sigel
The Making of Midway (2001)
as Self
Taken (1999)
as Ethan Grover
The Case of the Baltimore Girls (1978)
as George Bates
Murrow (1986)
as William Paley
Devil's Food (1996)
as Seymour Kecker
The President's Plane Is Missing (1973)
as Sen. Bert Haines
Maneaters Are Loose! (1978)
as McCallum
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor (1980)
as Rick Bessett