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