WarGames And Nine To Five Star Dabney Coleman Dead At 92
Hollywood is saying goodbye to one of its best-loved character actors today. Dabney Coleman died on May 16 at the age of 92. The cause of death has not yet been announced. The actor and Army veteran is survived by his four children.
"My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity," Coleman's daughter, Quincy Coleman, told The Hollywood Reporter. "As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery."
Coleman's career began in the '60s with a string of small roles on shows like "The Outer Limits," "I Dream of Jeannie," and "The Mod Squad." After nearly two decades in the industry, he took on one of the most recognizable parts of his career: the role of Franklin Hart Jr, the overbearing, misogynist boss that Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton's characters team up to take down in the groundbreaking workplace comedy "9 to 5."
While "9 to 5" could be considered one of Coleman's signature projects, it's far from his only memorable turn. From Oscar-winning classics to '90s cartoons, here are some of the other highlights from Dabney Coleman's impressive career.
Dabney Coleman carved out a special niche for himself in the entertainment industry
Speaking with Vulture in 2010, Dabney Coleman fondly remembered "9 to 5" as the film that "opened up the movies for me." Although he'd previously had roles in films like "The Towering Inferno" and "The Other Side of the Mountain," his post-"9 to 5" film career saw him land many meaty supporting parts.
Coleman earned a reputation for playing a particular kind of smarmy, underhanded villain. In the Oscar winning comedy "Tootsie" he was the chauvinist soap opera director Ron Carlisle, while "The Muppets Take Manhattan" saw him playing a con artist posing as a Broadway producer. Of portraying these particular types of characters, Coleman told Vulture, "It's fun playing those roles. You get to do outlandish things, things that you want to do, probably, in real life but you just don't because you're a civilized human being."
Even as his film career took off, Coleman never strayed far from the world of TV. He won an Emmy for the TV movie "Sworn to Silence," a Golden Globe for his starring role on the sitcom "The Slap Maxwell Story," and twice won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series along with the rest of the cast of "Boardwalk Empire."
Coleman's penchant for playing comedic villains even extended to the world of animation. If you're a child of the '90s, you'll likely recognize him as Principal Peter Prickly from the ABC series "Recess."
Whether in film or on TV, Dabney Coleman leaves behind a unique and cherished body of work.