Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. He is best known for his abrasive characters and his usually present mustache.
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.
Though a capable character actor with a wide range, and more than 60 movies to hi...
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Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. He is best known for his abrasive characters and his usually present mustache.
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.
Though a capable character actor with a wide range, and more than 60 movies to his credit, Coleman is usually typecast as smarmy, selfish, nervous, patronizing and self-absorbed, usually an authority figure of some sort, powerful and chauvinistic. An early example of such features a rather dapper Coleman (sans mustache) as the ethically absent Harrison Wilby in an Elvis Presley film, The Trouble with Girls.
Coleman's fate in these types of roles was cemented with roles such as that of Franklin Hart, Jr. in 1980's Nine to Five, a sexist boss whose murder is fantasized about by his office employees, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton...
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