Dabney Coleman, who starred in “9 to 5” and “Tootsie,” appeared in Los Angeles on November 14, 1988. The actor died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California.
Nick Ut/AP
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Nick Ut/AP
Dabney Coleman, who starred in “9 to 5” and “Tootsie,” appeared in Los Angeles on November 14, 1988. The actor died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, California.
Nick Ut/AP
NEW YORK — Dabney Coleman, a mustachioed character actor, specializes in playing smarmy villains like the chauvinist boss in “9 to 5” and the unpleasant TV director from “Tootsie” has passed away. He was 92 years old.
Coleman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, his daughter, Quincy Coleman, said in a statement to The Associated Press. She said he “took his last earthly breath peacefully and delicately.”
“The great Dabney Coleman created or defined, really – in a unique way – an archetype of a character actor. He was so good at what he did, it’s hard to imagine films and television pictures of the past 40 years without him,” Ben Stiller wrote on X.
For two decades, Coleman worked in films and television shows as a talented but largely unnoticed actor. That changed abruptly in 1976 when he was cast as the incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the village of Fernwood in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” a satirical soap opera so over-the-top it went off the grid. who can touch it.
Producer Norman Lear eventually sought to syndicate the show starring Louise Lasser in the title role. It quickly became a cult favorite. Coleman’s character, Mayor Merle Jeeter, was especially popular and his humorous, skilled performance was not overlooked by film and network executives.
Six feet tall with a bushy black mustache, Coleman went on to make his mark in many famous films, including playing a tense computer scientist in War Games and Tom Hanks’ father in You’ve Got Mail. and a fire. fighting official in “The Towering Inferno.”
He won a Golden Globe for “The Slap Maxwell Story” and an Emmy for best supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 small-screen legal drama Sworn to Silence. Some of his recent roles include “Ray Donovan” and a recurring role on “Boardwalk Empire,” for which he won two Screen Actors Guild awards.
In the 1980 breakthrough hit “9 to 5”, he was the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical” boss who tormented his unappreciated subordinates – Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton – until they turned the tables on him.
In 1981, he was Fonda’s polite, attentive boyfriend, who asked her father (played by her real-life father, Henry Fonda) if he could sleep with her during a visit to her parents’ vacation home. in “On Golden Pond”. “
Opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,” he is the obnoxious director of a daytime soap opera in which Hoffman’s character participates by pretending to be a woman. Among Coleman’s other films are “North Dallas Forty”, “Cloak and Dagger”, “Dragnet”, “Meet the Applegates”, “Inspector Gadget” and “Stuart Little”. He reunited with Hoffman as a land developer in Brad Silberling’s “Moonlight Mile” with Jake Gyllenhaal.
Coleman’s obnoxious characters did not translate well to television, where he starred in several network comedies. Although some have become cult favorites, only one has lasted more than two seasons, and some critics question whether a show with a main character is completely devoid of redeeming qualities. Which price can attract a mass audience or not?
“Buffalo Bill” (1983-84) is a good example. The film stars Coleman as “Buffalo Bill” Bittinger, a bratty, arrogant, stupid daytime talk show host who is unhappy at being relegated to small-market Buffalo, New York, looked down on everyone around him. Despite being smartly written and featuring a stellar cast, it only lasted two seasons.
Another is 1987’s “The Slap Maxwell Story,” in which Coleman is a failed small-town sportswriter trying to save a crumbling marriage while flirting with a pretty young reporter. beautiful next door.
Other failed attempts to find a mass television audience include “Apple Pie,” “Drexell’s Class” (in which he played an insider trader) and “Madman of the People,” a show another press release where this time he clashed with his young boss, who was also his daughter.
He performed better when he co-starred in The Guardian (2001-2004), in which he played the father of a crooked lawyer. And he enjoyed his role as the voice of Principal Prickly on Disney’s animated series “Recess” from 1997-2003.
Beneath all that bravado is a reserved man. Coleman claims he is actually quite shy. “I’ve been shy all my life. Maybe it comes from being the youngest of four children, all very handsome, including a handsome older brother Tyrone Power. Maybe it’s because my father passed away when I was only 4 years old,” he said. told the Associated Press in 1984. “I was very young, just a boy there, a kid who didn’t cause trouble. I was captivated by imagination and I made up games for myself. “
As he aged, he also began to make his mark with flamboyant authority figures, notably in the 1998 film “My Date With the President’s Daughter,” in which he was more than just a self-proclaimed president. America’s egotistical, selfish self but also a clueless president. father of a teenage girl.
Dabney Coleman – his real name – was born in 1932 in Austin, Texas. After two years at Virginia Military Institute, two years at the University of Texas and two years in the Army, he was a 26-year-old law student when he met someone else. Austin native Zachry Scott, who starred in “Mildred Pierce” and other films.
“He was the most motivated person I had ever met. He convinced me I should become an actor, and I actually left the next day to study in New York. He didn’t think it was too smart. good, but I’ve made my decision.” “, Coleman told the AP in 1984.
Early credits include television shows such as “Ben Casey”, “Dr Kildare”, “The Outer Limits”, “Bonanza”, “The Mod Squad” and the film “The Towering Inferno”. He appeared on Broadway in 1961 in “A Call on Kuprin”. He played Kevin Costner’s father in the movie “Yellowstone”.
Twice divorced, Coleman leaves behind four children, Meghan, Kelly, Randy and Quincy, and grandchildren Hale and Gabe Torrance, Luie Freundl, Kai and Coleman Biancaniello.
Quincy Coleman wrote in his honor: “My father crafted his time on earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul ablaze with passion, desire and joy. Humor tickles people’s hearts.
