Dabney Coleman
Acting
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).
TV Shows(79)
Yellowstone
John Dutton Sr.
2018
For the People
Donald
2018
Ray Donovan
Mr. Price
2013
Pound Puppies
Mayor (voice)
2010
Boardwalk Empire
Commodore Louis Kaestner
2010
Heartland
Dr. Bart Jacobs
2007
Courting Alex
Jack Atwell
2006
NCIS
Army Corporal John Sydney
2003
The Guardian
Burton Fallin
2001
The Zeta Project
2001
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Frank Hager
1999
Recess
Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
1997
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Monsieur Fox (voice)
1995
Madman of the People
Jack 'Madman' Buckner
1994
The Magic School Bus
Horace Scope (voice)
1994
Drexell's Class
1991
Baby M
Gary Skoloff
1988
The Slap Maxwell Story
1987
Fresno
Tyler Cane
1986
Buffalo Bill
Bill Bittinger
1983
Diff'rent Strokes
1978
Apple Pie
Fast Eddie Murtaugh
1978
Forever Fernwood
1977
The Love Boat
Van Milner
1977
Fernwood 2 Night
Mayor Merle Jeeter
1977
Quincy, M.E.
Dr. Burt Travers
1976
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Merle Jeeter
1976
Saturday Night Live
Self - Host
1975
Switch
C.C. Owens
1975
Medical Story
Blair
1975
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
Paul Mathison
1975
Sons and Daughters
1974
The Manhunter
1974
Petrocelli
Willy Morgan
1974
Kojak
Alex Linden
1973
Police Story
1973
Barnaby Jones
George Clark
1973
The Streets of San Francisco
George Todd
1972
Banyon
Ralph Hubbard
1972
Search
1972
McMillan & Wife
Hansen
1971
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
Frank Wellmam
1971
Columbo
Hugh Creighton
1971
Cannon
1971
Dan August
Rick Bessett
1970
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Congressman Phil Whitman
1970
Nanny and the Professor
Detective Robinson
1970
Medical Center
1969
Then Came Bronson
Dr. Ron Carlisle
1969
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
Dr. Goldstone
1969
Room 222
1969
The Mod Squad
John
1968
Mannix
Ralph Stoner
1967
Judd, for the Defense
1967
The Flying Nun
Sub. Captain
1967
Ironside
Daniel Leary
1967
The Invaders
Capt. Mitchell Ross
1967
That Girl
1966
The F.B.I.
Ira Barker
1965
I Dream of Jeannie
George Webb
1965
Please Don't Eat the Daisies
Clark
1965
Run for Your Life
Fred Palmer
1965
12 O'Clock High
Captain Wilson
1964
Kraft Suspense Theatre
William Gunther
1963
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Sergeant Harry King
1963
The Fugitive
Floyd
1963
The Outer Limits
Dr. Williams
1963
Arrest and Trial
Wayne Holton
1963
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self
1962
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Tom Esterow
1962
Ben Casey
1961
Hazel
Les Swanton
1961
Dr. Kildare
Dr. David Kirkson
1961
Kraft Mystery Theatre
1961
Bonanza
Clyde
1959
Naked City
Resident
1958
The Donna Reed Show
Rallye Master
1958
Golden Globe Awards
Self - Nominee
1944
Movies(93)
Still Working 9 to 5
Self
2022
Rules Don't Apply
Raymond Holliday
2016
Char·ac·ter
Self
2012
Hard Four
Spray Loomis
2007
Domino
Drake Bishop
2005
Recess: All Growed Down
Principal Prickley (voice)
2003
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
Principal Prickly (voice)
2003
Where the Red Fern Grows
Grandpa
2003
Moonlight Mile
Mike Mulcahey
2002
The Climb
Mack
2002
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
Principal Peter Prickly
2001
The Making of Midway
Self
2001
Kiss My Act
Henry
2001
Recess: School's Out
Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
2001
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
John Kennedy
2000
Stuart Little
Dr. Beechwood
1999
Must Be Santa
1999
Inspector Gadget
Chief Quimby
1999
Giving It Up
Johnathan Gallant
1999
Taken
Ethan Grover
1999
You've Got Mail
Nelson Fox
1998
Exiled
Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
1998
My Date with the President's Daughter
President George Richmond
1998
Target Earth
Senator Ben Arnold
1998
A Witch's Way of Love
Joel
1997
Devil's Food
Seymour Kecker
1996
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
Arthur Milo
1995
Judicial Consent
Charles Mayron
1994
Clifford
Gerald Ellis
1994
The Beverly Hillbillies
Milburn Drysdale
1993
Amos & Andrew
Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
1993
Lincoln
Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
1992
There Goes the Neighborhood
Jeffrey Babitt
1992
Never Forget
William Cox
1991
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
Self
1990
Meet the Applegates
Aunt Bea
1990
Short Time
Burt Simpson
1990
Where the Heart Is
Stewart McBain
1990
Maybe Baby
Hal
1988
Hot to Trot
Walter Sawyer
1988
Plaza Suite
Jesse Kiplinger
1987
Dragnet
Jerry Caesar
1987
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Self
1987
Sworn to Silence
Martin Costigan
1987
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
Ed Sigel
1987
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Dabney Coleman
1986
Murrow
William Paley
1986
The Man with One Red Shoe
Cooper
1985
Night of 100 Stars II
Self
1985
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Martin Price
1984
Cloak & Dagger
Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
1984
WarGames
McKittrick
1983
Tootsie
Ron Carlisle
1982
Young Doctors in Love
Dr. Joseph Prang
1982
Modern Problems
Mark Winslow
1981
On Golden Pond
Bill Ray
1981
Callie & Son
Randall Bordeaux
1981
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
Rick Bessett
1980
Nine to Five
Franklin M. Hart Jr.
1980
Melvin and Howard
Judge Keith Hayes
1980
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
Jack Heintzel
1980
Pray TV
Marvin Fleece
1980
Nothing Personal
Dickerson
1980
When She Was Bad...
Jack Wilson
1979
North Dallas Forty
Emmett Hunter
1979
More Than Friends
Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
1978
Maneaters Are Loose!
McCallum
1978
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
George Bates
1978
Rolling Thunder
Maxwell
1977
Black Fist
Heineken
1977
Viva Knievel!
Ralph Thompson
1977
Midway
Captain Murray Arnold
1976
Kiss Me... Kill Me
Capt. Logan
1976
The Other Side of the Mountain
Dave McCoy
1975
Bite the Bullet
Jack Parker
1975
Returning Home
Al Stephenson
1975
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
Paul Mathison
1975
The Towering Inferno
Deputy Chief #1
1974
Bad Ronald
Mr. Wood
1974
The Dove
Charles Huntley
1974
House of Evil
1974
Cinderella Liberty
Executive Officer
1973
The President's Plane Is Missing
Sen. Bert Haines
1973
Dying Room Only
Bob Mitchell
1973
Moving Target
1973
Savage
Ted Seligson
1973
I Love My Wife
Frank Donnelly
1970
The Brotherhood of the Bell
Agent Shepard
1970
Downhill Racer
Mayo
1969
The Trouble with Girls
Harrison Wilby
1969
The Scalphunters
Jed
1968
This Property Is Condemned
Salesman
1966
The Slender Thread
Charlie
1965