Dabney Coleman

Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American character actor. In a career spanning over five decades, Coleman has had roles in films such as The Towering Inferno (1974), 9 to 5 (1980), On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), WarGames (1983), Cloak & Dagger (1984), The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), You've Got Mail (1998), Recess: School's Out (2001), Moonlight Mile (2002), and Rules Don't Apply (2016). Coleman has also had prominent roles on television as the title character in the NBC series Buffalo Bill (1983–1984), Burton Fallin on the CBS series The Guardian (2001–2004), the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in the animated series Recess (1997–1999), and Louis "The Commodore" Kaestner on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010–2011). He has won one Primetime Emmy Award from six nominations, and one Golden Globe Award from three nominations. 2Early 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 United States Army and served in Europe. 2Career Coleman is a character actor with over 60 films to his credit. He trained with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater from 1958-60. Early roles in his career included a US Olympic skiing team coach in the Robert Redford 1969 film Downhill Racer, a high-ranking superior San Francisco deputy fire chief to battalion chief 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