Highest rated as cast or director
Tootsie
1982
WarGames
1983
On Golden Pond
1981
The Guardian
2001 · 3 Seasons
Rolling Thunder
1977
Nine to Five
1980
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).
Acted in 158
2020s
- 2026
2010s
- 2018
- 2016
- 2013
- 2010
2000s
- 2007
Hard Four
Spray Loomis
Heartland
Dr. Bart Jacobs · 6 episodes
- 2006
Courting Alex
Jack Atwell · 12 episodes
- 2005
- 2003
- 2002
The Climb
Mack
- 2001
Recess Christmas: Miracle On Third Street
Principal Peter Prickly
Kiss My Act
Henry
- 2000
How to Marry a Billionaire: A Christmas Tale
John Kennedy
1990s
- 1999
- 1998
Exiled
Lieutenant Kevin Stolper
My Date with the President's Daughter
George Richmond
- 1997
A Witch's Way of Love
Joel
- 1996
Devil's Food
Seymour Kecker
E! True Hollywood Story
TV
- 1995
- 1994
Judicial Consent
Charles Mayron
Madman of the People
Jack 'Madman' Buckner · 16 episodes
- 1993
- 1992
- 1991
Never Forget
William Cox
- 1990
Meet the Applegates
Aunt Bea
Short Time
Burt Simpson
Where the Heart Is
Stewart McBain
1980s
- 1988
Maybe Baby
Hal
Hot to Trot
Walter Sawyer
Baby M
Gary Skoloff · 2 episodes
- 1987
Plaza Suite
Jesse Kiplinger
The Slap Maxwell Story
'Slap' Maxwell · 22 episodes
Sworn to Silence
Martin Costigan
Guilty of Innocence: The Lenell Geter Story
Ed Sigel
- 1986
Fresno
Tyler Cane · 5 episodes
The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer
Dabney Coleman
Murrow
William Paley
- 1985
- 1984
Cloak & Dagger
Jack Flack / Hal Osborne
- 1983
Buffalo Bill
Bill Bittinger · 26 episodes
- 1982
- 1981
Modern Problems
Mark Winslow
Callie & Son
Randall Bordeaux
- 1980
Melvin and Howard
Judge Keith Hayes
Pray TV
Marvin Fleece
1970s
- 1979
North Dallas Forty
Emmett Hunter
- 1978
Diff'rent Strokes
TV
More Than Friends
Joshua 'Josh' Harrington
Apple Pie
Fast Eddie Murtaugh · 2 episodes
Maneaters Are Loose!
McCallum
The Case of the Baltimore Girls
George Bates
- 1977
Forever Fernwood
TV
Black Fist
Heineken
Fernwood 2 Night
Mayor Merle Jeeter · 2 episodes
- 1976
Kiss Me... Kill Me
Capt. Logan
- 1975
Returning Home
Al Stephenson
Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan
Paul Mathison · 2 episodes
- 1974
Bad Ronald
Mr. Wood
Sons and Daughters
TV
The Dove
Charles Huntley
House of Evil
Movie
- 1973
Cinderella Liberty
Executive Officer
The President's Plane Is Missing
Sen. Bert Haines
Dying Room Only
Bob Mitchell
Moving Target
Morty Raskin
Savage!
Ted Seligson
- 1972
- 1971
- 1970
I Love My Wife
Frank Donnelly
The Brotherhood of the Bell
Agent Shepard
1960s
- 1969
The Trouble with Girls
Harrison Wilby
- 1968
- 1967
- 1966
- 1965
The Slender Thread
Charlie
- 1964
- 1963
- 1962
- 1961
Appearances10
2020s
- 2022
Celebrating Laughter: The Life and Films of Colin Higgins
Self
2010s
- 2012
2000s
- 2001
The Making of Midway
Self (archive footage)
1990s
- 1990
The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson
Self
1980s
- 1987
Happy 100th Birthday, Hollywood
Self
- 1985
Night of 100 Stars II
Self
1970s
- 1975
