Dabney Coleman
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- January 3, 1932
- Died
- May 16, 2024
- Birthplace
- 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).
Filmography
Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20 2026
as Franklin M. Hart Jr (archive footage)
Still Working 9 to 5 2022
as Self
Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins 2022
as Self
Rules Don't Apply 2016
as Raymond Holliday
Char·ac·ter 2012
as Self
Hard Four 2007
as Spray Loomis
Domino 2005
as Drake Bishop
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade 2003
as Principal Prickly (voice)
Recess: All Growed Down 2003
as Principal Prickley (voice)
Where the Red Fern Grows 2003
as Grandpa
Moonlight Mile 2002
as Mike Mulcahey
The Climb 2002
as Mack
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street 2001
as Principal Peter Prickly
The Making of Midway 2001
as Self (archive footage)
Kiss My Act 2001
as Henry
Recess: School's Out 2001
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale 2000
as John Kennedy
Stuart Little 1999
as Dr. Beechwood
Must Be Santa 1999
Actor
Inspector Gadget 1999
as Chief Quimby
Giving It Up 1999
as Johnathan Gallant
- Taken
Taken 1999
as Ethan Grover
You've Got Mail 1998
as Nelson Fox
Exiled 1998
as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
My Date with the President's Daughter 1998
as George Richmond
Target Earth 1998
as Senator Ben Arnold
A Witch's Way of Love 1997
as Joel
Devil's Food 1996
as Seymour Kecker
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped 1995
as Arthur Milo
Judicial Consent 1994
as Charles Mayron
Clifford 1994
as Gerald Ellis
The Beverly Hillbillies 1993
as Milburn Drysdale
Amos & Andrew 1993
as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
- Lincoln
Lincoln 1992
as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
There Goes the Neighborhood 1992
as Jeffrey Babitt
Never Forget 1991
as William Cox
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson 1990
as Self
Meet the Applegates 1990
as Aunt Bea
Short Time 1990
as Burt Simpson
Where the Heart Is 1990
as Stewart McBain
Maybe Baby 1988
as Hal
Hot to Trot 1988
as Walter Sawyer
Plaza Suite 1987
as Jesse Kiplinger
Dragnet 1987
as Jerry Caesar
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood 1987
as Self
Sworn to Silence 1987
as Martin Costigan
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story 1987
as Ed Sigel
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer 1986
as Dabney Coleman
Murrow 1986
as William Paley
The Man with One Red Shoe 1985
as Cooper
Night of 100 Stars II 1985
as Self
The Muppets Take Manhattan 1984
as Martin Price
Cloak & Dagger 1984
as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
WarGames 1983
as McKittrick
Tootsie 1982
as Ron Carlisle
Young Doctors in Love 1982
as Dr. Joseph Prang
Modern Problems 1981
as Mark Winslow
On Golden Pond 1981
as Bill Ray
Callie & Son 1981
as Randall Bordeaux
- Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor 1980
as Rick Bessett
Nine to Five 1980
as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
Melvin and Howard 1980
as Judge Keith Hayes
How to Beat the High Cost of Living 1980
as Jack Heintzel
Pray TV 1980
as Marvin Fleece
Nothing Personal 1980
as Dickerson
When She Was Bad... 1979
as Jack Wilson
North Dallas Forty 1979
as Emmett Hunter
More Than Friends 1978
as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
Maneaters Are Loose! 1978
as McCallum
The Case of the Baltimore Girls 1978
as George Bates
Rolling Thunder 1977
as Maxwell
Black Fist 1977
as Heineken
Viva Knievel! 1977
as Ralph Thompson
Midway 1976
as Captain Murray Arnold
Kiss Me... Kill Me 1976
as Capt. Logan
The Other Side of the Mountain 1975
as Dave McCoy
Bite the Bullet 1975
as Jack Parker
Returning Home 1975
as Al Stephenson
The Towering Inferno 1974
as Deputy Chief #1
Bad Ronald 1974
as Mr. Wood
The Dove 1974
as Charles Huntley
House of Evil 1974
Actor
Cinderella Liberty 1973
as Executive Officer
The President's Plane Is Missing 1973
as Sen. Bert Haines
Dying Room Only 1973
as Bob Mitchell
Moving Target 1973
as Morty Raskin
Savage! 1973
as Ted Seligson
I Love My Wife 1970
as Frank Donnelly
The Brotherhood of the Bell 1970
as Agent Shepard
Downhill Racer 1969
as Mayo
The Trouble with Girls 1969
as Harrison Wilby
The Scalphunters 1968
as Jed
This Property Is Condemned 1966
as Salesman
The Slender Thread 1965
as Charlie
Credits from TMDB.