
Dabney Coleman
Department: Acting
Biography
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).
Known For

WarGames
1983

Inspector Gadget
1999

Clifford
1994

The Man with One Red Shoe
1985

How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
2000

Where the Red Fern Grows
2003

Rolling Thunder
1977

Amos & Andrew
1993

Moonlight Mile
2002

Hot to Trot
1988

Target Earth
1998

On Golden Pond
1981

Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
1980

Maneaters Are Loose!
1978

Short Time
1990

The Muppets Take Manhattan
1984

The Scalphunters
1968

Melvin and Howard
1980

My Date with the President's Daughter
1998

Pray TV
1980

You've Got Mail
1998

Downhill Racer
1969

Bite the Bullet
1975

The Climb
2002

Tootsie
1982

Domino
2005

Devil's Food
1996

The Trouble with Girls
1969

A Witch's Way of Love
1997

Modern Problems
1981

Hard Four
2007

This Property Is Condemned
1966

Giving It Up
1999

Young Doctors in Love
1982

Where the Heart Is
1990

Callie & Son
1981

Cloak & Dagger
1984

Recess: School's Out
2001

Nine to Five
1980

Recess: All Growed Down
2003

Viva Knievel!
1977

Bad Ronald
1974

Cinderella Liberty
1973

The Other Side of the Mountain
1975

Dying Room Only
1973

Savage
1973

Never Forget
1991

Judicial Consent
1994

The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
1986

Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
1987

The Case of the Baltimore Girls
1978

Returning Home
1975

Nothing Personal
1980

Char·ac·ter
2012

I Love My Wife
1970

Black Fist
1977

The Beverly Hillbillies
1993

There Goes the Neighborhood
1992

Maybe Baby
1988

How to Beat the High Cost of Living
1980

North Dallas Forty
1979

Dragnet
1987

Meet the Applegates
1990

Sworn to Silence
1987

Exiled
1998

Night of 100 Stars II
1985

Moving Target
1973

The Dove
1974

In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
1995

Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
2003

Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
1975

Murrow
1986

Rules Don't Apply
2016

Taken
1999

The President's Plane Is Missing
1973

The Towering Inferno
1974

The Slender Thread
1965

House of Evil
1974

Stuart Little
1999

Plaza Suite
1987

Must Be Santa
1999

When She Was Bad...
1979

Kiss Me... Kill Me
1976

The Brotherhood of the Bell
1970

Midway
1976

More Than Friends
1978

Lincoln
1992

Still Working 9 to 5
2022

Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987

The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
1990

Kiss My Act
2001

Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
2001

The Making of Midway
2001

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
1976

Columbo
1971

Boardwalk Empire
2010

Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963

The Guardian
2001

The F.B.I.
1965

I Dream of Jeannie
1965

That Girl
1966

Diff'rent Strokes
1978

E! True Hollywood Story
1996

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999

Room 222
1969

Mannix
1967

The Mod Squad
1968

Kojak
1973

Medical Center
1969

The Fugitive
1963

The Zeta Project
2001

Cannon
1971

Ironside
1967

Madman of the People
1994

The Slap Maxwell Story
1987

Drexell's Class
1991

Buffalo Bill
1983

Nanny and the Professor
1970

Run for Your Life
1965

The Fugitive
1963

Police Story
1973

Switch
1975

Sons and Daughters
1974

The Fugitive
1963

Search
1972

Banyon
1972

Judd for the Defense
1967

The Fugitive
1963

Ben Casey
1961

The Manhunter
1974

Medical Story
1975

Fresno
1986

Dr. Kildare
1961

The Outer Limits
1963

Kraft Mystery Theatre
1961

Forever Fernwood
1977

Apple Pie
1978

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963

Saturday Night Live
1975

Columbo
1971

Arrest and Trial
1963

The F.B.I.
1965

The F.B.I.
1965

The F.B.I.
1965

The F.B.I.
1965

The F.B.I.
1965

Pound Puppies
2010

The F.B.I.
1965

The Magic School Bus
1994

The Outer Limits
1963

Courting Alex
2006

Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963

Petrocelli
1974

Kraft Suspense Theatre
1963

McMillan & Wife
1971

Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
1995

Bonanza
1959

Recess
1997

Barnaby Jones
1973

For the People
2018

The Streets of San Francisco
1972

The Invaders
1967

The Invaders
1967

The Love Boat
1977

Ray Donovan
2013

NCIS
2003

Fernwood 2 Night
1977

Quincy, M.E.
1976

Quincy, M.E.
1976

Barnaby Jones
1973

Barnaby Jones
1973

The Streets of San Francisco
1972

McMillan & Wife
1971

Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
1971

The Mary Tyler Moore Show
1970

Dan August
1970

The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
1969

The Flying Nun
1967

Please Don't Eat the Daisies
1965

12 O'Clock High
1964

12 O'Clock High
1964

The Outer Limits
1963

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962

Hazel
1961

Bonanza
1959

The Donna Reed Show
1958

Naked City
1958

Barnaby Jones
1973

I Dream of Jeannie
1965

Yellowstone
2018

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1962

Mannix
1967

Golden Globe Awards
1944

Then Came Bronson
1969

Heartland
2007

Baby M
1988

That Girl
1966