Cast
Dabney Coleman
Acting
Cast
Dabney Coleman
Known for
Acting
Born
1932-01-03
From
Austin, Texas, USA
Died
2024-05-16
Also known as Dabney Wharton Coleman
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).
★6.7
MOVIE1998
You've Got Mail
as Nelson Fox
★7.1
MOVIE1983
WarGames
as McKittrick
★6.6
MOVIE1976
Midway
as Captain Murray Arnold
★6.3
MOVIE1993
The Beverly Hillbillies
as Milburn Drysdale
★7.0
MOVIE1974
The Towering Inferno
as Deputy Chief #1
★7.2
MOVIE1982
Tootsie
as Ron Carlisle
★4.5
MOVIE1999
Inspector Gadget
as Chief Quimby
★6.1
MOVIE1999
Stuart Little
as Dr. Beechwood
★6.9
MOVIE1980
Nine to Five
as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
★7.3
MOVIE1981
On Golden Pond
as Bill Ray
★5.7
MOVIE2016
Rules Don't Apply
as Raymond Holliday
★5.7
MOVIE1985
The Man with One Red Shoe
as Cooper
★6.6
MOVIE2001
Recess: School's Out
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
★6.0
MOVIE1987
Dragnet
as Jerry Caesar
★5.9
MOVIE2005
Domino
as Drake Bishop
★6.6
MOVIE1984
The Muppets Take Manhattan
as Martin Price
★6.5
MOVIE1966
This Property Is Condemned
as Salesman
★5.3
MOVIE1982
Young Doctors in Love
as Dr. Joseph Prang
★5.2
MOVIE1997
A Witch's Way of Love
as Joel
★6.8
MOVIE1977
Rolling Thunder
as Maxwell
★6.4
MOVIE1968
The Scalphunters
as Jed
★8.0
MOVIE1987
Plaza Suite
as Jesse Kiplinger
★6.8
MOVIE1985
Night of 100 Stars II
as Self
★6.6
MOVIE2003
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
as Principal Prickly (voice)
★6.3
MOVIE2002
Moonlight Mile
as Mike Mulcahey
★5.5
MOVIE1993
Amos & Andrew
as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
★5.0
MOVIE1979
When She Was Bad...
as Jack Wilson
★6.3
MOVIE2003
Where the Red Fern Grows
as Grandpa
★4.9
MOVIE1969
The Trouble with Girls
as Harrison Wilby
★6.5
MOVIE2003
Recess: All Growed Down
as Principal Prickley (voice)
★9.0
MOVIE2001
The Making of Midway
as Self
★7.5
MOVIE1974
House of Evil
★6.5
MOVIE1975
Bite the Bullet
as Jack Parker
★6.3
MOVIE2001
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
as Principal Peter Prickly
★6.6
MOVIE1973
Dying Room Only
as Bob Mitchell
★5.1
MOVIE1994
Clifford
as Gerald Ellis
★5.4
MOVIE1981
Modern Problems
as Mark Winslow
★5.9
MOVIE1969
Downhill Racer
as Mayo
★5.9
MOVIE1998
Exiled
as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
★6.4
MOVIE1984
Cloak & Dagger
as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
★6.7
MOVIE1974
The Dove
as Charles Huntley
★5.2
MOVIE1988
Hot to Trot
as Walter Sawyer
★5.6
MOVIE1980
Nothing Personal
as Dickerson
★3.5
MOVIE1970
I Love My Wife
as Frank Donnelly
★5.2
MOVIE1980
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
as Jack Heintzel
★7.1
MOVIE1965
The Slender Thread
as Charlie
★6.7
MOVIE1979
North Dallas Forty
as Emmett Hunter
★4.0
MOVIE2012
Char·ac·ter
as Self
★5.5
MOVIE1992
There Goes the Neighborhood
as Jeffrey Babitt
★6.9
MOVIE1998
My Date with the President's Daughter
as President George Richmond
★6.7
MOVIE1973
Cinderella Liberty
as Executive Officer
★5.6
MOVIE1990
Meet the Applegates
as Aunt Bea
MOVIE1973
Moving Target
★6.0
MOVIE1987
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
as Self
★6.2
MOVIE1990
Where the Heart Is
as Stewart McBain
★5.5
MOVIE1973
Savage!
as Ted Seligson
★6.5
MOVIE1975
Returning Home
as Al Stephenson
★6.3
MOVIE1975
The Other Side of the Mountain
as Dave McCoy
★6.0
MOVIE2001
Kiss My Act
as Henry
★4.2
MOVIE1999
Giving It Up
as Johnathan Gallant
★6.4
MOVIE1974
Bad Ronald
as Mr. Wood
★7.3
MOVIE1992
Lincoln
as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
★5.6
MOVIE1994
Judicial Consent
as Charles Mayron
★6.5
MOVIE1980
Melvin and Howard
as Judge Keith Hayes
★6.5
MOVIE1990
Short Time
as Burt Simpson
★4.4
MOVIE1998
Target Earth
as Senator Ben Arnold
★5.3
MOVIE1995
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
as Arthur Milo
★10.0
MOVIE2022
Still Working 9 to 5
as Self
★4.0
MOVIE2000
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
as John Kennedy
★6.8
MOVIE1981
Callie & Son
as Randall Bordeaux
★10.0
MOVIE1978
More Than Friends
as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
★7.5
MOVIE1975
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
as Paul Mathison
★4.0
MOVIE1977
Viva Knievel!
as Ralph Thompson
★6.8
MOVIE1990
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
as Self
★6.3
MOVIE1973
The President's Plane Is Missing
as Sen. Bert Haines
★7.0
MOVIE1987
Sworn to Silence
as Martin Costigan
★4.9
MOVIE2007
Hard Four
as Spray Loomis
★6.8
MOVIE1976
Kiss Me... Kill Me
as Capt. Logan
★5.0
MOVIE1991
Never Forget
as William Cox
★6.3
MOVIE1986
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
as Dabney Coleman
★7.0
MOVIE1996
Devil's Food
as Seymour Kecker
★6.0
MOVIE1970
The Brotherhood of the Bell
as Agent Shepard
★6.5
MOVIE1987
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
as Ed Sigel
★5.5
MOVIE1986
Murrow
as William Paley
★5.5
MOVIE1980
Pray TV
as Marvin Fleece
★4.4
MOVIE1977
Black Fist
as Heineken
★3.5
MOVIE1999
Must Be Santa
★6.1
MOVIE2002
The Climb
as Mack
★10.0
MOVIE1978
Maneaters Are Loose!
as McCallum
★5.0
MOVIE1988
Maybe Baby
as Hal
MOVIE1978
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
as George Bates
★5.0
MOVIE1999
Taken
as Ethan Grover
★2.0
MOVIE1980
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
as Rick Bessett