Loading amazing content...
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Birthday
January 3, 1932
Died
May 16, 2024
Place of Birth
Austin, Texas, USA
Also Known As
- Dabney Wharton Coleman
Dabney Coleman
2.1 Popularity
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
10.0
Self
Still Working 9 to 5
2022
8.3
John Dutton Sr.
Yellowstone
2018
7.3
Donald
For The People
2018
5.7
Raymond Holliday
Rules Don't Apply
2016
7.5
Mr. Price
Ray Donovan
2013
4.0
Self
Char·ac·ter
2012
5.2
Mayor (voice)
Pound Puppies
2010
8.0
Commodore Louis Kaestner
Boardwalk Empire
2010
4.4
Spray Loomis
Hard Four
2007
6.5
Dr. Bart Jacobs
Heartland
2007
Credits
Still Working 9 to 5
as Self
2022
10.0
Yellowstone
as John Dutton Sr.
2018
8.3
For The People
as Donald
2018
7.3
Rules Don't Apply
as Raymond Holliday
2016
5.7
Ray Donovan
as Mr. Price
2013
7.5
Char·ac·ter
as Self
2012
4.0
Pound Puppies
as Mayor (voice)
2010
5.2
Boardwalk Empire
as Commodore Louis Kaestner
2010
8.0
Hard Four
as Spray Loomis
2007
4.4
Heartland
as Dr. Bart Jacobs
2007
6.5
Courting Alex
as Jack Atwell
2006
5.3
Domino
as Drake Bishop
2005
5.9
Recess: All Growed Down
as Principal Prickley (voice)
2003
6.5
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
as Principal Prickly (voice)
2003
6.5
NCIS
as Army Corporal John Sydney
2003
7.6
Where the Red Fern Grows
as Grandpa
2003
5.9
Moonlight Mile
as Mike Mulcahey
2002
6.3
The Climb
as Mack
2002
5.7
The Guardian
as Burton Fallin
2001
6.9
Kiss My Act
as Henry
2001
5.5
Recess: School's Out
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
2001
6.6
The Zeta Project
2001
7.5
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
as John Kennedy
2000
3.4
Stuart Little
as Dr. Beechwood
1999
6.1
Must Be Santa
1999
3.5
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
as Frank Hager
1999
7.9
Inspector Gadget
as Chief Quimby
1999
4.5
Giving It Up
as Johnathan Gallant
1999
3.9
🎬
Taken
as Ethan Grover
1999
4.0
You've Got Mail
as Nelson Fox
1998
6.7
Exiled
as Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
1998
5.8
My Date with the President's Daughter
as President George Richmond
1998
6.9
Target Earth
as Senator Ben Arnold
1998
4.2
Recess
as Principal Peter Prickly (voice)
1997
7.7
A Witch's Way of Love
as Joel
1997
5.2
🎬
Devil's Food
as Seymour Kecker
1996
0.0
E! True Hollywood Story
1996
8.1
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
as Monsieur Fox (voice)
1995
6.0
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
as Arthur Milo
1995
4.3
Judicial Consent
as Charles Mayron
1994
5.1
Madman of the People
as Jack 'Madman' Buckner
1994
6.0
The Magic School Bus
as Horace Scope (voice)
1994
7.6
Clifford
as Gerald Ellis
1994
5.1
The Beverly Hillbillies
as Milburn Drysdale
1993
6.3
Amos & Andrew
as Chief of Police Cecil Tolliver
1993
5.4
🎬
Lincoln
as Stephen A. Douglas (voice)
1992
6.8
There Goes the Neighborhood
as Jeffrey Babitt
1992
5.3
🎬
Drexell's Class
1991
5.5
Never Forget
as William Cox
1991
4.2
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
as Self
1990
6.9
Meet the Applegates
as Aunt Bea
1990
5.4
Short Time
as Burt Simpson
1990
6.4
Where the Heart Is
as Stewart McBain
1990
6.1
Maybe Baby
as Hal
1988
4.5
Hot to Trot
as Walter Sawyer
1988
5.2
Baby M
as Gary Skoloff
1988
5.0
Plaza Suite
as Jesse Kiplinger
1987
6.0
The Slap Maxwell Story
1987
3.0
Dragnet
as Jerry Caesar
1987
6.0
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
as Self
1987
5.7
Sworn to Silence
as Martin Costigan
1987
6.0
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
as Ed Sigel
1987
0.0
Fresno
as Tyler Cane
1986
6.4
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
as Dabney Coleman
1986
6.2
Murrow
as William Paley
1986
5.0
The Man with One Red Shoe
as Cooper
1985
5.7
Night of 100 Stars II
as Self
1985
8.0
The Muppets Take Manhattan
as Martin Price
1984
6.6
Cloak & Dagger
as Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
1984
6.3
WarGames
as McKittrick
1983
7.1
Buffalo Bill
as Bill Bittinger
1983
6.3
Tootsie
as Ron Carlisle
1982
7.2
Young Doctors in Love
as Dr. Joseph Prang
1982
5.2
Modern Problems
as Mark Winslow
1981
5.4
On Golden Pond
as Bill Ray
1981
7.3
Callie & Son
as Randall Bordeaux
1981
6.7
🎬
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
as Rick Bessett
1980
2.0
Nine to Five
as Franklin M. Hart Jr.
1980
6.9
Melvin and Howard
as Judge Keith Hayes
1980
6.4
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
as Jack Heintzel
1980
5.0
Pray TV
as Marvin Fleece
1980
4.8
Nothing Personal
as Dickerson
1980
5.3
When She Was Bad...
as Jack Wilson
1979
5.0
North Dallas Forty
as Emmett Hunter
1979
6.6
Diff'rent Strokes
1978
7.1
More Than Friends
as Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
1978
0.0
Apple Pie
as Fast Eddie Murtaugh
1978
6.0
Maneaters Are Loose!
as McCallum
1978
0.0
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
as George Bates
1978
0.0
Rolling Thunder
as Maxwell
1977
6.8
Forever Fernwood
1977
5.0
The Love Boat
as Van Milner
1977
6.3
Black Fist
as Heineken
1977
4.0
Fernwood 2 Night
as Mayor Merle Jeeter
1977
5.7
Viva Knievel!
as Ralph Thompson
1977
3.6
Quincy, M.E.
as Dr. Burt Travers
1976
7.5
Quincy, M.E.
as Officer Peter O'Neil
1976
7.5
Midway
as Captain Murray Arnold
1976
6.6
Kiss Me... Kill Me
as Capt. Logan
1976
7.0
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
as Merle Jeeter
1976
7.1
The Other Side of the Mountain
as Dave McCoy
1975
6.3
Saturday Night Live
as Self - Host
1975
7.0
Bite the Bullet
as Jack Parker
1975
6.4
Switch
as C.C. Owens
1975
6.7
Medical Story
1975
3.0
Returning Home
as Al Stephenson
1975
5.0
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
as Paul Mathison
1975
5.0
The Towering Inferno
as Deputy Chief #1
1974
7.0
Bad Ronald
as Mr. Wood
1974
6.2
Petrocelli
as Willy Morgan
1974
7.2
The Manhunter
1974
5.0
Sons and Daughters
1974
0.0
The Dove
as Charles Huntley
1974
6.3
House of Evil
1974
6.0
Cinderella Liberty
as Executive Officer
1973
6.6
Kojak
as Alex Linden
1973
7.0
The President's Plane Is Missing
as Sen. Bert Haines
1973
6.2
Dying Room Only
as Bob Mitchell
1973
6.6
Moving Target
1973
0.0
Savage
as Ted Seligson
1973
5.7
Police Story
1973
6.9
Barnaby Jones
as George Clark
1973
6.9
Barnaby Jones
as Ted Sayers
1973
6.9
Barnaby Jones
as Brad Adamson
1973
6.9
Barnaby Jones
as Paul Cleveland
1973
6.9
The Streets of San Francisco
as George Todd
1972
7.0
The Streets of San Francisco
as Andrew Horvath, Sr.
1972
7.0
Banyon
as Ralph Hubbard
1972
7.0
Search
1972
6.9
McMillan & Wife
as Hansen
1971
6.9
McMillan & Wife
as Walter Jennings
1971
6.9
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
as Frank Wellmam
1971
6.3
Columbo
as Hugh Creighton
1971
8.1
Columbo
as Detective Murray
1971
8.1
Cannon
1971
6.6
I Love My Wife
as Frank Donnelly
1970
2.0
Dan August
as Rick Bessett
1970
6.8
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
as Congressman Phil Whitman
1970
7.6
The Brotherhood of the Bell
as Agent Shepard
1970
5.5
Nanny and the Professor
as Detective Robinson
1970
6.0
Downhill Racer
as Mayo
1969
5.8
Medical Center
1969
6.1
Then Came Bronson
as Dr. Ron Carlisle
1969
4.8
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
as Dr. Goldstone
1969
4.0
Room 222
1969
6.0
The Trouble with Girls
as Harrison Wilby
1969
4.7
The Mod Squad
as John
1968
6.2
The Scalphunters
as Jed
1968
6.4
Mannix
as Ralph Stoner
1967
6.7
Mannix
as Howard Graham
1967
6.7
Judd for the Defense
1967
7.5
The Flying Nun
as Sub. Captain
1967
6.3
Ironside
as Daniel Leary
1967
6.8
The Invaders
as Capt. Mitchell Ross
1967
6.8
The Invaders
as John Carter
1967
6.8
That Girl
1966
6.1
This Property Is Condemned
as Salesman
1966
6.4
The Slender Thread
as Charlie
1965
7.1
The F.B.I.
as Ira Barker
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Allen Clarke
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Stanley Leonard
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Sam Langlin
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Ty Williams
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Mr. Jamison
1965
5.4
The F.B.I.
as Barnes
1965
5.4
I Dream of Jeannie
as George Webb
1965
7.8
I Dream of Jeannie
as Captain Yardley
1965
7.8
Please Don't Eat the Daisies
as Clark
1965
6.6
Run for Your Life
as Fred Palmer
1965
7.2
12 O'Clock High
as Captain Robbins
1964
7.2
12 O'Clock High
as Captain Wilson
1964
7.2
Kraft Suspense Theatre
as William Gunther
1963
5.3
Kraft Suspense Theatre
as Alvin Piper
1963
5.3
🎬
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
as Sergeant Harry King
1963
5.7
🎬
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
as Stanley Rivkin
1963
5.7
The Fugitive
as Floyd
1963
7.2
The Fugitive
as Sergeant Keith
1963
7.2
The Fugitive
as Officer George Graham
1963
7.2
The Fugitive
as Steve
1963
7.2
The Outer Limits
as Dr. Williams
1963
7.8
The Outer Limits
as James Custer
1963
7.8
The Outer Limits
as Lt. Rupert Lawrence Howard (uncredited)
1963
7.8
Arrest and Trial
as Wayne Holton
1963
7.7
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
as Self
1962
7.5
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Tom Esterow
1962
7.8
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Sgt. Lou Snyder
1962
7.8
Ben Casey
1961
5.6
Hazel
as Les Swanton
1961
6.8
Dr. Kildare
as Dr. David Kirkson
1961
5.5
Kraft Mystery Theatre
1961
6.0
Bonanza
as Clyde
1959
7.5
Bonanza
as Ivar Peterson
1959
7.5
Naked City
as Resident
1958
5.5
The Donna Reed Show
as Rallye Master
1958
6.2
Golden Globe Awards
as Self - Nominee
1944
7.2