1932-01-03 Austin, Texas, USA
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).
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Still Working 9 to 5 | Self | 2022-03-13 |
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Rules Don't Apply | Raymond Holliday | 2016-11-23 |
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Char·ac·ter | Self | 2012-11-30 |
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Hard Four | Spray Loomis | 2007-11-01 |
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Domino | Drake Bishop | 2005-10-14 |
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Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade | Principal Prickly (voice) | 2003-12-09 |
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Recess: All Growed Down | Principal Prickley (voice) | 2003-12-09 |
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Where the Red Fern Grows | Grandpa | 2003-05-03 |
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The Climb | Mack | 2002-02-22 |
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Moonlight Mile | Mike Mulcahey | 2002-09-09 |
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Kiss My Act | Henry | 2001-04-23 |
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Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street | Principal Peter Prickly | 2001-11-06 |
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Recess: School's Out | Principal Peter Prickly (voice) | 2001-02-16 |
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How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale | John Kennedy | 2000-06-20 |
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Inspector Gadget | Chief Quimby | 1999-07-23 |
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Taken | Ethan Grover | 1999-01-01 |
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Stuart Little | Dr. Beechwood | 1999-12-17 |
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Giving It Up | Johnathan Gallant | 1999-03-16 |
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Must Be Santa | 1999-12-12 | |
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Target Earth | Senator Ben Arnold | 1998-01-01 |
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Exiled | Lieutenant Kevin Stolper | 1998-11-08 |
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My Date with the President's Daughter | President George Richmond | 1998-04-19 |
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You've Got Mail | Nelson Fox | 1998-12-18 |
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Un amour de sorcière | Joel | 1997-03-19 |
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Devil's Food | Seymour Kecker | 1996-09-02 |
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In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped | Arthur Milo | 1995-03-12 |
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Judicial Consent | Charles Mayron | 1994-10-21 |
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Clifford | Gerald Ellis | 1994-04-01 |
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The Beverly Hillbillies | Milburn Drysdale | 1993-10-15 |
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Amos & Andrew | Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver | 1993-03-05 |
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There Goes the Neighborhood | Jeffrey Babitt | 1992-10-30 |
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Lincoln | Stephen A. Douglas (voice) | 1992-12-26 |
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Never Forget | William Cox | 1991-04-08 |
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Meet the Applegates | Aunt Bea | 1990-06-06 |
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Where the Heart Is | Stewart McBain | 1990-02-23 |
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Short Time | Burt Simpson | 1990-05-04 |
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The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson | Self | 1990-11-21 |
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Hot to Trot | Walter Sawyer | 1988-08-26 |
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Maybe Baby | Hal | 1988-12-05 |
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Plaza Suite | Jesse Kiplinger | 1987-12-03 |
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Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story | Ed Sigel | 1987-02-03 |
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Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood | Self | 1987-05-18 |
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Sworn to Silence | Martin Costigan | 1987-04-06 |
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Dragnet | Jerry Caesar | 1987-06-26 |
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The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer | Dabney Coleman | 1986-04-18 |
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Murrow | William Paley | 1986-01-19 |
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Night of 100 Stars II | Self | 1985-03-10 |
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The Man with One Red Shoe | Cooper | 1985-07-18 |
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Cloak & Dagger | Jack Flack / Hal Osborne | 1984-06-01 |
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The Muppets Take Manhattan | Martin Price | 1984-06-27 |
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WarGames | McKittrick | 1983-06-03 |
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Tootsie | Ron Carlisle | 1982-12-17 |
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Young Doctors in Love | Dr. Joseph Prang | 1982-07-16 |
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Callie & Son | Randall Bordeaux | 1981-10-13 |
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On Golden Pond | Bill Ray | 1981-12-04 |
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Modern Problems | Mark Winslow | 1981-12-25 |
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Nine to Five | Franklin M. Hart Jr. | 1980-12-18 |
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Melvin and Howard | Judge Keith Hayes | 1980-09-19 |
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How to Beat the High Cost of Living | Jack Heintzel | 1980-07-11 |
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Dan August: The Jealousy Factor | Rick Bessett | 1980-12-31 |
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Pray TV | Marvin Fleece | 1980-05-23 |
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Nothing Personal | Dickerson | 1980-03-28 |
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North Dallas Forty | Emmett Hunter | 1979-08-03 |
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When She Was Bad... | Jack Wilson | 1979-11-25 |
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The Case of the Baltimore Girls | George Bates | 1978-01-23 |
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Maneaters Are Loose! | McCallum | 1978-05-03 |
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More Than Friends | Joshua 'Josh' Harrington | 1978-10-20 |
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Rolling Thunder | Maxwell | 1977-11-02 |
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Black Fist | Heineken | 1977-08-31 |
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Viva Knievel! | Ralph Thompson | 1977-06-10 |
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Midway | Captain Murray Arnold | 1976-06-18 |
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Kiss Me... Kill Me | Capt. Logan | 1976-05-08 |
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The Other Side of the Mountain | Dave McCoy | 1975-11-14 |
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Bite the Bullet | Jack Parker | 1975-09-26 |
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Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan | Paul Mathison | 1975-02-20 |
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Returning Home | Al Stephenson | 1975-04-29 |
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The Dove | Charles Huntley | 1974-06-16 |
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Bad Ronald | Mr. Wood | 1974-10-23 |
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House of Evil | 1974-05-14 | |
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The Towering Inferno | Deputy Chief #1 | 1974-12-14 |
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Savage | Ted Seligson | 1973-03-31 |
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Cinderella Liberty | Executive Officer | 1973-12-18 |
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Moving Target | 1973-05-22 | |
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Dying Room Only | Bob Mitchell | 1973-09-18 |
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The President's Plane Is Missing | Sen. Bert Haines | 1973-10-23 |
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I Love My Wife | Frank Donnelly | 1970-12-21 |
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The Brotherhood of the Bell | Agent Shepard | 1970-09-17 |
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Downhill Racer | Mayo | 1969-11-06 |
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The Trouble with Girls | Harrison Wilby | 1969-06-24 |
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The Scalphunters | Jed | 1968-02-29 |
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This Property Is Condemned | Salesman | 1966-08-03 |
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The Slender Thread | Charlie | 1965-12-15 |
