Dabney Coleman
Acting
172 titles
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
Still Working 9 to 5
2022
Yellowstone
2018
For the People
2018
Rules Don't Apply
2016
Ray Donovan
2013
Char·ac·ter
2012
Pound Puppies
2010
Boardwalk Empire
2010
Hard Four
2007
Heartland
2007
Courting Alex
2006
Domino
2005
Recess: All Growed Down
2003
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
2003
NCIS
2003
Where the Red Fern Grows
2003
Moonlight Mile
2002
The Climb
2002
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
2001
The Making of Midway
2001
The Guardian
2001
Kiss My Act
2001
Recess: School's Out
2001
The Zeta Project
2001
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
2000
Stuart Little
1999
Must Be Santa
1999
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
Inspector Gadget
1999
Giving It Up
1999
Taken
1999
You've Got Mail
1998
Exiled
1998
My Date with the President's Daughter
1998
Target Earth
1998
Recess
1997
A Witch's Way of Love
1997
Devil's Food
1996
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
1995
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
1995
Judicial Consent
1994
Madman of the People
1994
The Magic School Bus
1994
Clifford
1994
The Beverly Hillbillies
1993
Amos & Andrew
1993
Lincoln
1992
There Goes the Neighborhood
1992
Drexell's Class
1991
Never Forget
1991
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
1990
Meet the Applegates
1990
Short Time
1990
Where the Heart Is
1990
Maybe Baby
1988
Hot to Trot
1988
Baby M
1988
Plaza Suite
1987
The Slap Maxwell Story
1987
Dragnet
1987
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987
Sworn to Silence
1987
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
1987
Fresno
1986
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
1986
Murrow
1986
The Man with One Red Shoe
1985
Night of 100 Stars II
1985
The Muppets Take Manhattan
1984
Cloak & Dagger
1984
WarGames
1983
Buffalo Bill
1983
Tootsie
1982
Young Doctors in Love
1982
Modern Problems
1981
On Golden Pond
1981
Callie & Son
1981
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
1980
Nine to Five
1980
Melvin and Howard
1980
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
1980
Pray TV
1980
Nothing Personal
1980
When She Was Bad...
1979
North Dallas Forty
1979
Diff'rent Strokes
1978
More Than Friends
1978
Apple Pie
1978
Maneaters Are Loose!
1978
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
1978
Rolling Thunder
1977
Forever Fernwood
1977
The Love Boat
1977
Black Fist
1977
Fernwood 2 Night
1977
Viva Knievel!
1977
Quincy, M.E.
1976
Midway
1976
Kiss Me... Kill Me
1976
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
1976
The Other Side of the Mountain
1975
Saturday Night Live
1975
Bite the Bullet
1975
Switch
1975
Medical Story
1975
Returning Home
1975
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
1975
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
1975
The Towering Inferno
1974
Bad Ronald
1974
Sons and Daughters
1974
The Manhunter
1974
Petrocelli
1974
The Dove
1974
House of Evil
1974
Cinderella Liberty
1973
Kojak
1973
The President's Plane Is Missing
1973
Dying Room Only
1973
Moving Target
1973
Savage!
1973
Police Story
1973
Barnaby Jones
1973
The Streets of San Francisco
1972
Banyon
1972
Search
1972
McMillan & Wife
1971
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
1971
Columbo
1971
Cannon
1971
I Love My Wife
1970
Dan August
1970
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
1970
The Brotherhood of the Bell
1970
Nanny and the Professor
1970
Downhill Racer
1969
Medical Center
1969
Then Came Bronson
1969
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
1969
Room 222
1969
The Trouble with Girls
1969
The Mod Squad
1968
The Scalphunters
1968
Mannix
1967
Judd, for the Defense
1967
The Flying Nun
1967
Ironside
1967
The Invaders
1967
That Girl
1966
This Property Is Condemned
1966
The Slender Thread
1965
The F.B.I.
1965
I Dream of Jeannie
1965
Please Don't Eat the Daisies
1965
Run for Your Life
1965
12 O'Clock High
1964
Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963
The Fugitive
1963
The Outer Limits
1963
Arrest and Trial
1963
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962
Ben Casey
1961
Hazel
1961
Dr. Kildare
1961
Kraft Mystery Theatre
1961
Bonanza
1959
Naked City
1958
The Donna Reed Show
1958
Golden Globe Awards
1944