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: All Growed Down | Principal Prickley (voice) | 2003-12-09 |
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Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade | Principal Prickly (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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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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Giving It Up | Johnathan Gallant | 1999-03-16 |
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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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Must Be Santa | 1999-12-12 | |
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Exiled | Lieutenant Kevin Stolper | 1998-11-08 |
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Target Earth | Senator Ben Arnold | 1998-01-01 |
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You've Got Mail | Nelson Fox | 1998-12-18 |
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My Date with the President's Daughter | President George Richmond | 1998-04-19 |
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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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Clifford | Gerald Ellis | 1994-04-01 |
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Judicial Consent | Charles Mayron | 1994-10-21 |
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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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Lincoln | Stephen A. Douglas (voice) | 1992-12-26 |
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There Goes the Neighborhood | Jeffrey Babitt | 1992-10-30 |
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Never Forget | William Cox | 1991-04-08 |
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Where the Heart Is | Stewart McBain | 1990-02-23 |
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Meet the Applegates | Aunt Bea | 1990-06-06 |
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The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson | Self | 1990-11-21 |
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Short Time | Burt Simpson | 1990-05-04 |
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Maybe Baby | Hal | 1988-12-05 |
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Hot to Trot | Walter Sawyer | 1988-08-26 |
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Sworn to Silence | Martin Costigan | 1987-04-06 |
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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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Dragnet | Jerry Caesar | 1987-06-26 |
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Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood | Self | 1987-05-18 |
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Murrow | William Paley | 1986-01-19 |
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The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer | Dabney Coleman | 1986-04-18 |
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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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Young Doctors in Love | Dr. Joseph Prang | 1982-07-16 |
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Tootsie | Ron Carlisle | 1982-12-17 |
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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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Callie & Son | Randall Bordeaux | 1981-10-13 |
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How to Beat the High Cost of Living | Jack Heintzel | 1980-07-11 |
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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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Nothing Personal | Dickerson | 1980-03-28 |
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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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When She Was Bad... | Jack Wilson | 1979-11-25 |
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North Dallas Forty | Emmett Hunter | 1979-08-03 |
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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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The Case of the Baltimore Girls | George Bates | 1978-01-23 |
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Black Fist | Heineken | 1977-08-31 |
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Rolling Thunder | Maxwell | 1977-11-02 |
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Viva Knievel! | Ralph Thompson | 1977-06-10 |
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Kiss Me... Kill Me | Capt. Logan | 1976-05-08 |
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Midway | Captain Murray Arnold | 1976-06-18 |
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Returning Home | Al Stephenson | 1975-04-29 |
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Bite the Bullet | Jack Parker | 1975-09-26 |
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The Other Side of the Mountain | Dave McCoy | 1975-11-14 |
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Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan | Paul Mathison | 1975-02-20 |
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House of Evil | 1974-05-14 | |
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Bad Ronald | Mr. Wood | 1974-10-23 |
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The Dove | Charles Huntley | 1974-06-16 |
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The Towering Inferno | Deputy Chief #1 | 1974-12-14 |
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Dying Room Only | Bob Mitchell | 1973-09-18 |
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Cinderella Liberty | Executive Officer | 1973-12-18 |
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Moving Target | 1973-05-22 | |
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Savage | Ted Seligson | 1973-03-31 |
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The President's Plane Is Missing | Sen. Bert Haines | 1973-10-23 |
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The Brotherhood of the Bell | Agent Shepard | 1970-09-17 |
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I Love My Wife | Frank Donnelly | 1970-12-21 |
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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 |
