Dabney Wharton Coleman (January 3, 1932 – May 16, 2024) was an American actor. He was recognized for his roles portraying egomaniacal and unlikeable characters in comedic performances. Throughout his career, he appeared in over 175 films and television programs and received awards for both comedic and dramatic performances.
Coleman's notable films include 9 to 5 (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), WarGames (1983), Cloak & Dagger (1984), and You've Got Mail (1998). His significant television roles included Merle Jeeter on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976–1977), the title characters in Buffalo Bill (1983–1984) and The Slap Maxwell Story (1987–1988), and Burton Fallin on The Guardian (2001–2004). Later in his career, he portrayed Louis "The Commodore" Kaestner on Boardwalk Empire (2010–2011). His final role was an appearance on Yellowstone (2019). As a voice actor, he provided the voice of Principal Peter Prickly on Recess (1997–2001) and in several movies based on the series.
Coleman won one Primetime Emmy Award from six nominations and one Golden Globe Award from three nominations.
Early life
Dabney Coleman was born the youngest of four children in Austin, Texas, on January 3, 1932, to Randolph and Mary Johns Coleman. His father died from pneumonia when Dabney was four years old. He and three older sisters were then raised by his mother in Corpus Christi, Texas. He attended Corpus Christi High School, where he excelled at tennis and became nationally ranked as a junior tennis player.
In 1949, at the age of 17, he enrolled at Virginia Military Institute, where he studied for two years and competed on the school's tennis team. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin for two years, graduating in 1954 with a B.A. in drama. Coleman later recalled that he did not pass many courses and that he was "too busy playing Ping-Pong at the Phi Delta Theta house and calling girls". He was drafted into the United States Army in 1953 and served in West Germany in the Army's Special Services for two years. He later told an interviewer, "I spent my military service either playing or teaching tennis." After being discharged by the Army in 1955, he returned to the University of Texas at Austin to enroll in law school. Coleman recounted, "I'll never forget the way he stood and asked if my wife was at home. He had style. In that moment I knew I wanted to be an actor, to be like Zachary Scott. The next day I got on an airplane and flew to New York."
Soon after finishing his training under Meisner, Coleman made his Broadway debut in the short-lived A Call on Kuprin in 1961. He followed that with summer stock performances on the east coast.
In 1965, he landed his first movie role in The Slender Thread, which was also Pollack's directorial debut.
In his first recurring role on television, he played Dr. Leon Bessemer, a neighbor and friend of the protagonist, in the first season of That Girl (1966). 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).
In the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976–1977), Coleman was initially cast for six episodes as Merle Jeeter, the duplicitous father of a child preacher, but his performance secured him a regular role on the show. The part was also the first time he played an unsavory character for comedic effect, which would become a frequent theme in his career. He first grew the mustache that would be associated with many of his roles in 1973.