Dabney Coleman Dabney Wharton Coleman is an American actor
who is perhaps best known for roles in 9 to 5, Cloak & Dagger, Tootsie, WarGames, You've
Got Mail, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess
and Recess: School's Out.
Early life Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son
of Mary Wharton (née Johns) and Melvin Randolph Coleman.
He entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1949, then studied law at the University
of Texas before turning to acting.
He was drafted in 1953 to the U.S. Army and served in Europe.
Career Coleman is a character actor who has a wide
range, with over 60 films to his credit.
Early roles in his career included a US Olympic skiing team coach in the Robert Redford 1969
film Downhill Racer, a high-ranking superior to firefighter Steve McQueen in The Towering
Inferno (1974) and a wealthy Westerner whose champion horse is entered in a long-distance
race against that of Gene Hackman and others in Bite the Bullet (1975).
He portrayed an FBI Special Agent in the NBC-TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku
Klux Klan (1975).
He eventually landed the main antagonist part of Franklin Hart, Jr., a sexist boss on whom
three female office employees (Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin) get their revenge
in 1980's Nine to Five.
It was this film that established Coleman in the character type he is most identified
with and has frequently played since - a comic relief villain.
(He had played earlier versions of such characters in the Elvis Presley vehicle The Trouble with
Girls as well as an appearance in a 1962 AMC Rambler commercial.)
Coleman followed up Nine to Five with the role of the arrogant, sexist, soap opera director
in Tootsie (1982), further enforcing audiences' identification of him as a smarmy, devious
foil to a film's main character.
He broke from this type somewhat, however, in his portrayal of military computer scientist
John McKittrick in WarGames (1983).
Coleman received his first Emmy nomination for his lead role in the critically acclaimed,
though short-lived, TV series Buffalo Bill.
In 1987, he received an Emmy Award for his role in the TV movie Sworn to Silence.
He was featured in the feature film On Golden Pond (1981), playing the fiance of Chelsea
Thayer Wayne (Jane Fonda).
Coleman played a Hugh Hefner-ish magazine mogul in the comedy Dragnet (1987), Bobcat
Goldthwait's boss (wearing, inexplicably, a set of fake teeth) in the 1988 talking-horse
comedy Hot to Trot, and befuddled banker Milburn Drysdale in the feature film The Beverly Hillbillies
(1993).
Coleman received top billing as Gerald Ellis in Clifford (1994), with Martin Short in the
title role.
He also played a philandering father in You've Got Mail (1998).
More recently, Coleman appeared as a casino owner in 2005's Domino.
He received acclaim as Burton Fallin in the TV series The Guardian (2001-04).
For two seasons, from 2010 to 2011, Coleman was a series regular on HBO's hit series Boardwalk
Empire.
Personal life Coleman has been married twice.
He was married to Ann Courtney Harrell from 1957 to 1959 and to Jean Hale from 1961 to
1984.
He has four children: Meghan, Kelly, Randy, and Quincy.
He resides in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles.
In 1998, Coleman worked with fellow actor Bronson Pinchot at the Biltmore Estate in
Asheville, North Carolina, to help protect local forests and helped lead a campaign to
educate others of how to care for and protect forests nationwide.
Coleman has been an avid tennis player, playing for the US Army while posted in Europe (he
was drafted in 1953), and later playing in and winning some celebrity and charity tournaments.
Filmography Naked City (1961)
The Donna Reed Show (1965) The Slender Thread (1965)
This Property Is Condemned (1966) That Girl (1966–67)
Dundee and the Culhane (1967) The Fugitive (1967)
The Scalphunters (1968) The Trouble with Girls (1969)
Downhill Racer (1969) The Mod Squad (1969)
I Love My Wife (1970) The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970)
Cinderella Liberty (1973) Columbo: Double Shock (1973)
The Dove (1974) Bad Ronald (1974)
The Towering Inferno (1974) Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux
Klan (1975) Black Fist (1975)
Bite the Bullet (1975) The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1976) Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV) (1976–77)
Midway (1976) Viva Knievel!
(1977) Rolling Thunder (1977)
North Dallas Forty (1979) Pray TV (1980)
Nothing Personal (1980) How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980)
Melvin and Howard (1980) 9 to 5 (1980)
On Golden Pond (1981) Modern Problems (1981)
Young Doctors in Love (1982) Tootsie (1982)
Buffalo Bill (TV) (1983–84) WarGames (1983)
Cloak & Dagger (1984) The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
The Man with One Red Shoe (1985) Fresno (TV miniseries) (1986)
Dragnet (1987) Sworn to Silence (TV) (1987)
The Slap Maxwell Story (TV) (1987–88) Hot to Trot (1988)
Where the Heart Is (1990) Short Time (1990)
Never Forget (1991) Drexell's Class (TV) (1991–92)
Meet the Applegates (1991) Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star (1991)
There Goes the Neighborhood (1992) Amos & Andrew (1993)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) Judicial Consent (1994)
Clifford (1994) Madman of the People (TV) (1994–1995)
Witch Way Love (1997) Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998)
You've Got Mail (1998) My Date with the President's Daughter (1998)
Taken (1999) Giving It Up (1999)
Inspector Gadget (1999) Stuart Little (1999)
Recess: School's Out (2001) The Guardian (2001–04)
The Climb (2002) Moonlight Mile (2002)
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003) Domino (2005)
Heartland (2007) Hard Four (2007)
Law & Order: SVU ("Snatched") (2009) Boardwalk Empire (2010–11)
Pound Puppies (animated TV series) (2010–11) voice of the Mayor (Season One only)