Dabney Coleman

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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

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2026
Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20
Movie Franklin M. Hart Jr (archive footage)
2022
Still Working 9 to 5
Movie Self
2018
Yellowstone
TV show John Dutton Sr.
2018
For the People
TV show Donald
2016
Rules Don't Apply
Movie Raymond Holliday
2013
Ray Donovan
TV show Mr. Price
2012
Char·ac·ter
Movie Self
2010
Pound Puppies
TV show Mayor (voice)
2010
Boardwalk Empire
TV show Commodore Louis Kaestner
2007
Hard Four
Movie Spray Loomis
2007
Heartland
TV show Dr. Bart Jacobs
2006
Courting Alex
TV show Jack Atwell
2005
Domino
Movie Drake Bishop
2003
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
Movie Principal Prickly (voice)
2003
Recess: All Growed Down
Movie Principal Prickley (voice)
2003
NCIS
TV show John Sydney