Dabney Coleman
Born: 1932-01-03 in Austin, Texas, USA
Died: 2024-05-16
Known For: Acting
Biography
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).
Filmography
2022
- Still Working 9 to 5 as Self
2018
- Yellowstone as John Dutton Sr.
- For the People as Donald
2016
- Rules Don't Apply as Raymond Holliday
2013
- Ray Donovan as Mr. Price
2012
- Char·ac·ter as Self
2010
- Boardwalk Empire as Commodore Louis Kaestner
- Pound Puppies as Mayor (voice)
2006
- Courting Alex as Jack Atwell
2005
- Domino as Drake Bishop
2003
- NCIS as John Sydney
- Where the Red Fern Grows as Grandpa
- Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade as Principal Prickly (voice)
- Recess: All Growed Down as Principal Prickley (voice)
2002
- Moonlight Mile as Mike Mulcahey
- The Climb as Mack
2001
- The Guardian as Burton Fallin
- The Zeta Project
- Recess: School's Out as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
- Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street as Principal Peter Prickly
- Kiss My Act as Henry
- The Making of Midway as Self
2000
- How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale as John Kennedy
1999
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Frank Hager
- Stuart Little as Dr. Beechwood
- Inspector Gadget as Chief Quimby
- Giving It Up as Johnathan Gallant
- Taken as Ethan Grover
- Must Be Santa
1998
- You've Got Mail as Nelson Fox
- Exiled as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
- My Date with the President's Daughter as President George Richmond
- Target Earth as Senator Ben Arnold
1997
- Recess as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
- A Witch's Way of Love as Joel
1996
- E! True Hollywood Story
- Devil's Food as Seymour Kecker
1995
- Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child as Monsieur Fox (voice)
- In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped as Arthur Milo
1994
- The Magic School Bus as Horace Scope (voice)
- Madman of the People as Jack 'Madman' Buckner
- Clifford as Gerald Ellis
- Judicial Consent as Charles Mayron
1993
- The Beverly Hillbillies as Milburn Drysdale
- Amos & Andrew as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
1992
- Lincoln as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
- There Goes the Neighborhood as Jeffrey Babitt
1991
- Drexell's Class
- Never Forget as William Cox
1990
- Short Time as Burt Simpson
- Where the Heart Is as Stewart McBain
- Meet the Applegates as Aunt Bea
- The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson as Self
1988
- Baby M as Gary Skoloff
- Hot to Trot as Walter Sawyer
- Maybe Baby as Hal
1987
- Dragnet as Jerry Caesar
- The Slap Maxwell Story
- Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood as Self
- Plaza Suite as Jesse Kiplinger
- Sworn to Silence as Martin Costigan
- Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story as Ed Sigel
1986
- Fresno as Tyler Cane
- The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer as Dabney Coleman
- Murrow as William Paley
1985
- The Man with One Red Shoe as Cooper
- Night of 100 Stars II as Self
1984
- The Muppets Take Manhattan as Martin Price
- Cloak & Dagger as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
1983
- WarGames as McKittrick
- Buffalo Bill as Bill Bittinger
1982
- Tootsie as Ron Carlisle
- Young Doctors in Love as Dr. Joseph Prang
1981
- On Golden Pond as Bill Ray
- Callie & Son as Randall Bordeaux
- Modern Problems as Mark Winslow
1980
- Nine to Five as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
- Melvin and Howard as Judge Keith Hayes
- How to Beat the High Cost of Living as Jack Heintzel
- Nothing Personal as Dickerson
- Pray TV as Marvin Fleece
- Dan August: The Jealousy Factor as Rick Bessett
1979
- North Dallas Forty as Emmett Hunter
- When She Was Bad... as Jack Wilson
1978
- Diff'rent Strokes
- Apple Pie as Fast Eddie Murtaugh
- More Than Friends as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
- The Case of the Baltimore Girls as George Bates
- Maneaters Are Loose! as McCallum
1977
- The Love Boat as Van Milner
- Fernwood 2 Night as Mayor Merle Jeeter
- Forever Fernwood
- Rolling Thunder as Maxwell
- Viva Knievel! as Ralph Thompson
- Black Fist as Heineken
1976
- Quincy, M.E. as Dr. Burt Travers
- Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as Merle Jeeter
- Midway as Captain Murray Arnold
- Kiss Me... Kill Me as Capt. Logan
1975
- Saturday Night Live as Self - Host
- Switch as C.C. Owens
- Medical Story as Blair
- Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan as Paul Mathison
- Bite the Bullet as Jack Parker
- Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan as Paul Mathison
- The Other Side of the Mountain as Dave McCoy
- Returning Home as Al Stephenson
1974
- Petrocelli as Willy Morgan
- The Towering Inferno as Deputy Chief #1
- The Manhunter
- Sons and Daughters
- The Dove as Charles Huntley
- Bad Ronald as Mr. Wood
- House of Evil
1973
- Barnaby Jones as George Clark
- Kojak as Alex Linden
- Police Story
- Cinderella Liberty as Executive Officer
- Savage! as Ted Seligson
- Dying Room Only as Bob Mitchell
- The President's Plane Is Missing as Sen. Bert Haines
- Moving Target
1972
- The Streets of San Francisco as George Todd
- Search
- Banyon as Ralph Hubbard
1971
- Columbo as Hugh Creighton
- Cannon
- McMillan & Wife as Hansen
- Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law as Frank Wellmam
1970
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Congressman Phil Whitman
- Nanny and the Professor as Detective Robinson
- Dan August as Rick Bessett
- The Brotherhood of the Bell as Agent Shepard
- I Love My Wife as Frank Donnelly
1969
- Room 222
- Medical Center
- Then Came Bronson as Dr. Ron Carlisle
- The Bold Ones: The New Doctors as Dr. Goldstone
- Downhill Racer as Mayo
- The Trouble with Girls as Harrison Wilby
1968
- The Mod Squad as John
- The Scalphunters as Jed
1967
- Ironside as Daniel Leary
- Mannix as Ralph Stoner
- The Flying Nun as Sub. Captain
- The Invaders as Capt. Mitchell Ross
- Judd, for the Defense
1966
- That Girl
- This Property Is Condemned as Salesman
1965
- I Dream of Jeannie as George Webb
- Run for Your Life as Fred Palmer
- The F.B.I. as Ira Barker
- Please Don't Eat the Daisies as Clark
- The Slender Thread as Charlie
1964
- 12 O'Clock High as Captain Wilson
1963
- Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre as Sergeant Harry King
- The Fugitive as Floyd
- The Outer Limits as Dr. Williams
- Kraft Suspense Theatre as William Gunther
- Arrest and Trial as Wayne Holton
1962
- The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson as Self
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Tom Esterow
1961
- Dr. Kildare as Dr. David Kirkson
- Ben Casey
- Hazel as Les Swanton
- Kraft Mystery Theatre
1959
- Bonanza as Clyde
1958
- The Donna Reed Show as Rallye Master
- Naked City as Resident
1944
- Golden Globe Awards as Self - Nominee