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