Photo: Trailer for "The Towering Inferno" (1974) / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Nobody played a smug jerk quite like Dabney Coleman, and I mean that as the highest compliment. He cornered the market on lovable-to-hate bosses, most famously the chauvinist tyrant in 9 to 5, and brought that same sneering charm to Tootsie and WarGames. The mustache alone did half the work. What people forget is how good his dramatic range was late in his career, especially that menacing turn in Boardwalk Empire. He trained at law school before acting, and you can feel that sharp, argumentative intelligence in every line reading. When he passed in 2024 at ninety-two, Hollywood lost one of its great reliable scoundrels.
Overview
Dabney Coleman (January 3, 1932 - May 16, 2024) was an American actor from Austin, Texas, known for his mastery of comic villains and pompous, irascible authority figures. He won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1987 and is celebrated for roles in films such as 9 to 5, Tootsie, and WarGames, as well as television series including Buffalo Bill and Boardwalk Empire. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was honored with a Screen Actors Guild ensemble award in 2011.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Dabney Coleman
- Name (Japanese)
- ダブニー・コールマン
- Reading
- だぶにー・こーるまん
- Born
- January 3, 1932 – May 16, 2024
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Monkey
- Origin
- Austin, Texas, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- Actor / Television Actor / Stage Actor / Film Actor / Voice Actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Corpus Christi High School
- University
- University of Texas School of Law
Awards & achievements
- 1987 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
- 1987 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
- 2011 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble
- Hollywood Walk of Fame Star
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Television Actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.