May 17 – Dabney Coleman, a character actor who brought a brilliant touch of shyness to the screen by playing comic villains, mean bosses and outright idiots in films such as “9 to 5” and “Tootsie,” dies at 92 Went. ,

Coleman “took his last earthly breath peacefully and gracefully” on Thursday at his Santa Monica, Calif., home, his daughter Quincy Coleman said in a statement Friday on behalf of the family.

While Coleman is best remembered for his cocky, unhinged and reckless characters, he said it was all an act.

Coleman once told The New York Times, “It’s me joking.”

He said, “He’s just a guy I’m playing to fool me, you know.”

Not all of Coleman’s characters were mad. He won an Emmy Award playing a lawyer in the 1987 television film “Sworn to Silence” and played Jane Fonda’s civilized dentist boyfriend in the 1981 film “On Golden Pond” and a federal security officer in the 1983 film “War Games.” played the part.

His last screen credit was playing John Dutton Sr. in the TV series “Yellowstone” in 2019.

Coleman was born on January 3, 1932 in Austin, Texas. Before trying his hand at acting, he studied law and served in the US Army.

Her early work in the 1960s and 1970s included solo roles on various television shows, as well as a semi-regular role as Marlo Thomas’ neighbor in “That Girl”.

His first film was 1965’s “The Slender Thread”, directed by his acting teacher and friend, Sydney Pollack, who later hired him for “Tootsie”.

Coleman’s breakout role – and the one she described as her favorite – came in 1976 in producer Norman Lear’s TV series “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” He played the creepy mayor named Merle Geeter in that soap-opera spoof and spinoffs “Fernwood Tonight” and “Forever Fernwood”, which has an affair with the title character.

His first major film role – and the one that established his acting persona – was in 1980 as Franklin Hart, a sexist, egotistical business executive who harasses subordinates played by Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin until Unless they hold him hostage and boost corporate productivity. “9 to 5.”

Colman became less likable two years later in “Tootsie,” as a soap opera director who pursues Dustin Hoffman’s drag-in-drag title character.

In 1983, he took the comic villain role even further in his first lead role. In the short-lived sitcom “Buffalo Bill,” she played a radio talk show host whose idea of ​​a marriage proposal was: “You’re better than 90 percent of those bimbos.”

Coleman told People magazine in 1983, “It’s fun to play those characters because they’re so well-defined.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, he starred as a sports writer in the sitcom “The Slap Maxwell Story”, a corporate raider turned teacher in “Drexel’s Class” and as a magazine columnist working for his daughter in “Madman Also acted in “Of the People”. Neither show lasted more than two seasons.

Recent roles include playing the man who once controlled Atlantic City, New Jersey on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” in 2010–11. When Coleman was diagnosed with throat cancer, his part had to be rewritten, leaving him unable to speak at times.

A dedicated tennis player, Coleman was married and divorced twice. He had four children with his second wife, actress Jean Hale.

His daughter’s statement read, “My father spent his time on earth with an inquisitive mind, a generous heart and a soul full of passion, desire and humor that made humanity tick.”

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