Dabney Coleman

Dabney Coleman
Born	Dabney Wharton Coleman January 3, 1932 (1932-01-03) Austin, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1961–present
Spouse	Ann Courtney Harrell (1957–1959) (divorced) Jean Hale (1961–1984) (divorced) 3 children

Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor, best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, 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.

Career

Film

Coleman is a character actor who has a wide range, with over 60 films to his credit. He is often typecast as a comic relief villain, the smarmy, devious foil to the main character. An early example of such features was his portrayal of an ethically absent Harrison Wilby in an Elvis Presley film, The Trouble with Girls.

Coleman's fate in these types of roles was cemented with roles such as that of Franklin Hart, Jr. in 1980's Nine to Five, a sexist boss whose murder is fantasized about by his office employees (Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin). That role reunited him with actress Marian Mercer, with whom he also worked on the TV series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; (He played Fernwood's mayor, Merle Jeeter and Marian played his second wife, Wanda Rittenhouse Jeeter). He broke from this type somewhat in his portrayal of military computer scientist John McKittrick in WarGames (1983).

In smaller, earlier appearances, he played a U.S. 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).

In 1987 he received an Emmy award for his role in the TV Movie Sworn to Silence.

He was featured in the Academy Award-winning On Golden Pond (1981), playing the fiance of Chelsea Thayer Wayne (Jane Fonda) who visits Golden Pond to meet her parents, played by Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn. Coleman played a Hugh Hefner-ish magazine mogul in the comedy Dragnet (1987) with Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks, befuddled banker Milburn Drysdale in the theatrical version of 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).

Since its introduction in 2010, Coleman has been a series regular on HBO's epic, Boardwalk Empire.

Personal life

Coleman has been married twice. He was married to Ann Courtney Harrell from 1957 to 1959 and to actress Jean Hale from 1961 to 1984. He has four children: Meghan, Kelly, Randy, and Quincy. He resides in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles.

Coleman has been an avid tennis player, playing for the Army while posted in Europe (he was drafted in 1953), and later playing in and winning some celebrity and charity tournaments.

Filmography

• The Slender Thread (1965)
• This Property Is Condemned (1966)
• 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)
• The Dove (1974)
• Bad Ronald (1974)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Black Fist (1975)
• Bite the Bullet (film) (1975)
• The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
• 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)
• Nine to Five (1980)
• On Golden Pond (1981)
• Modern Problems (1981)
• Young Doctors in Love (1982)
• Tootsie (1982)
• Buffalo Bill (TV) (1983–1984)
• 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) (1987–1988)
• Hot to Trot (1988)
• Where the Heart Is (1990)
• Short Time (1990)
• Drexell's Class (TV) (1991)
• Meet the Applegates (1991)
• There Goes the Neighborhood (1992)
• Amos & Andrew (1993)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
• Judicial Consent (1994)
• Clifford (1994)
• 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 (TV) (2001)
• The Climb (2002)
• Moonlight Mile (2002)
• Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
• Domino (2005)
• Heartland (2007)
• Hard Four (2007)
• Boardwalk Empire (2010)

External links

• Dabney Coleman at the Internet Movie Database
• Dabney Coleman at the Internet Broadway Database