9.0
Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20
2026
Dabney Coleman
Acting
Born January 3, 1932Died May 16, 2024Austin, Texas, USA
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).
Movies
See All
10.0
Still Working 9 to 5
2022
5.8
Rules Don't Apply
2016
4.0
Char·ac·ter
2012
4.9
Hard Four
2007
5.9
Domino
2005
6.5
Recess: All Growed Down
2003
6.6
Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade
2003
6.6
Where the Red Fern Grows
2003
6.3
Moonlight Mile
2002
6.1
The Climb
2002
6.3
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
2001
9.0
The Making of Midway
2001
6.0
Kiss My Act
2001
6.6
Recess: School's Out
2001
4.0
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
2000
6.1
Stuart Little
1999
3.5
Must Be Santa
1999
4.5
Inspector Gadget
1999
4.2
Giving It Up
1999
Taken
5.0
Taken
1999
6.7
You've Got Mail
1998
5.9
Exiled
1998
6.9
My Date with the President's Daughter
1998
4.4
Target Earth
1998
5.2
A Witch's Way of Love
1997
7.0
Devil's Food
1996
5.2
In the Line of Duty: Kidnapped
1995
5.6
Judicial Consent
1994
5.1
Clifford
1994
6.3
The Beverly Hillbillies
1993
5.5
Amos & Andrew
1993
Lincoln
7.3
Lincoln
1992
5.5
There Goes the Neighborhood
1992
5.3
Never Forget
1991
6.8
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
1990
5.5
Meet the Applegates
1990
6.5
Short Time
1990
6.2
Where the Heart Is
1990
5.0
Maybe Baby
1988
5.2
Hot to Trot
1988
8.0
Plaza Suite
1987
6.0
Dragnet
1987
6.0
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
1987
7.0
Sworn to Silence
1987
6.5
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
1987
6.6
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
1986
5.5
Murrow
1986
5.7
The Man with One Red Shoe
1985
6.8
Night of 100 Stars II
1985
6.6
The Muppets Take Manhattan
1984
6.3
Cloak & Dagger
1984
7.1
WarGames
1983
7.2
Tootsie
1982
5.3
Young Doctors in Love
1982
5.4
Modern Problems
1981
7.3
On Golden Pond
1981
6.7
Callie & Son
1981
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
2.0
Dan August: The Jealousy Factor
1980
7.0
Nine to Five
1980
6.5
Melvin and Howard
1980
5.4
How to Beat the High Cost of Living
1980
5.5
Pray TV
1980
5.5
Nothing Personal
1980
5.0
When She Was Bad...
1979
6.7
North Dallas Forty
1979
10.0
More Than Friends
1978
10.0
Maneaters Are Loose!
1978
0.0
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
1978
6.8
Rolling Thunder
1977
4.3
Black Fist
1977
4.0
Viva Knievel!
1977
6.6
Midway
1976
6.8
Kiss Me... Kill Me
1976
6.3
The Other Side of the Mountain
1975
6.4
Bite the Bullet
1975
6.5
Returning Home
1975
7.0
The Towering Inferno
1974
6.4
Bad Ronald
1974
6.7
The Dove
1974
7.5
House of Evil
1974
6.7
Cinderella Liberty
1973
6.3
The President's Plane Is Missing
1973
6.6
Dying Room Only
1973
0.0
Moving Target
1973
5.5
Savage!
1973
3.5
I Love My Wife
1970
6.0
The Brotherhood of the Bell
1970
6.0
Downhill Racer
1969
4.9
The Trouble with Girls
1969
6.4
The Scalphunters
1968
6.4
This Property Is Condemned
1966
7.1
The Slender Thread
1965
TV Shows
See All
8.3
Yellowstone
7.2
For the People
7.5
Ray Donovan
5.3
Pound Puppies
8.0
Boardwalk Empire
6.5
Heartland
5.8
Courting Alex
7.6
NCIS
7.0
The Guardian
7.5
The Zeta Project
8.0
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
7.8
Recess
8.1
E! True Hollywood Story
6.3
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
6.3
Madman of the People
7.7
The Magic School Bus
Drexell's Class
6.3
Drexell's Class
7.0
Baby M
4.0
The Slap Maxwell Story
6.7
Fresno
6.7
Buffalo Bill
7.1
Diff'rent Strokes
7.5
Apple Pie
5.0
Forever Fernwood
6.2
The Love Boat
6.4
Fernwood 2 Night
7.5
Quincy, M.E.
7.5
Quincy, M.E.
7.3
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
6.9
Saturday Night Live
6.6
Switch
5.0
Medical Story
0.0
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
9.0
Sons and Daughters
7.0
The Manhunter
7.2
Petrocelli
7.3
Kojak
7.0
Police Story
7.0
Barnaby Jones
7.0
Barnaby Jones
7.0
Barnaby Jones
7.0
Barnaby Jones
7.1
The Streets of San Francisco
7.1
The Streets of San Francisco
8.0
Banyon
7.1
Search
6.9
McMillan & Wife
6.9
McMillan & Wife
6.5
Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law
8.1
Columbo
8.1
Columbo
6.7
Cannon
7.2
Dan August
7.7
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
6.7
Nanny and the Professor
6.4
Medical Center
5.2
Then Came Bronson
4.8
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
6.1
Room 222
6.1
The Mod Squad
6.9
Mannix
6.9
Mannix
7.7
Judd, for the Defense
6.3
The Flying Nun
6.8
Ironside
6.8
The Invaders
6.8
The Invaders
6.2
That Girl
6.2
That Girl
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
5.6
The F.B.I.
7.8
I Dream of Jeannie
7.8
I Dream of Jeannie
6.8
Please Don't Eat the Daisies
7.1
Run for Your Life
7.2
12 O'Clock High
7.2
12 O'Clock High
6.5
Kraft Suspense Theatre
6.5
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
5.9
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
5.9
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
7.3
The Fugitive
7.3
The Fugitive
7.3
The Fugitive
7.3
The Fugitive
7.8
The Outer Limits
7.8
The Outer Limits
7.8
The Outer Limits
8.2
Arrest and Trial
7.6
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
7.9
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
7.9
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
5.9
Ben Casey
6.8
Hazel
5.7
Dr. Kildare
7.2
Kraft Mystery Theatre
7.5
Bonanza
7.5
Bonanza
5.7
Naked City
6.5
The Donna Reed Show
7.0