Grumpy actor Dabney Coleman dies at 92

Dabney Coleman, the mustachioed actor who specialized in mischievous villains such as the chauvinistic boss in 9 to 5 and the evil TV director in Tootsie, is dead. He was 92 years old.

Coleman died Thursday, said his daughter, Quincy Coleman. The Hollywood Reporter. No further details were immediately available.

The great Dabney Coleman literally created, or defined, in a truly singular and unique way, an archetype as a character actor. He was so good at what he did that it's hard to imagine the movies and television of the last 40 years without him, wrote Ben Stiller on X.

Coleman, for two decades, worked in films and television shows as a talented but largely unnoticed performer. This changed abruptly in 1976 when he was appointed incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the hamlet of Fernwood in Marie Hartman, Marie Hartmana satirical soap opera so over-the-top that no network would touch it.

Producer Norman Lear was eventually able to syndicate the series, which starred Louise Lasser in the title role. It quickly became cult. Coleman's character, Mayor Merle Jeeter, was particularly popular, and his masterful, comically deadpan delivery was not overlooked by film and network executives.

Standing six feet tall with a sweeping black mustache, Coleman went on to make his mark in many popular films, most notably as a stressed-out computer scientist in War gamesTom Hanks' father You've got mail and a fire officer from The imposing hell.

He won a Golden Globe for The Slap Maxwell Story and an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Peter Levin's 1987 small-screen legal drama. Sworn to silence. Some of his recent credits include Ray Donovan and a recurring role on Boardwalk Empirefor which he won two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In the 1980 breakthrough hit 9 to 5he was the bigoted sexist, selfish, lying, hypocritical boss who tormented his unsung subordinates Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton until they turned the tables.

In 1981, he was Fonda's caring and well-mannered boyfriend, who asks her father (played by her real father, Henry Fonda) if he can have sex with her during a visit to her parents' vacation home has On the golden pond.

Opposite Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, he was the obnoxious director of a daytime soap opera that Hoffman's character joins by pretending to be a woman. Coleman's other films included North Dallas Forty, Cloak and dagger, Flirting, Meet the Applegates, Inspector Gadget And Stuart Little. He reunited with Hoffman as a real estate developer in Brad Silberlings A thousand by moonlightwith Jake Gyllenhaal.

Coleman's obnoxious characters didn't translate as well to television, where he starred in a handful of network comedies. Although some achieved cult status, only one lasted more than two seasons, and some critics questioned whether a series featuring a main character without any redeeming qualities could attract a mass audience.

Buffalo Bill (1983-84) is a good example. It starred Coleman as Buffalo Bill Bittinger, the smart, arrogant and stupid daytime talk show host who, unhappy at being relegated to the small market of Buffalo, New York, lashes out at everything the world around him. Although intelligently written and featuring a fine cast, it only lasted two seasons.

Another one was in 1987 The Slap Maxwell Storyin which Coleman was a failed small-town sportswriter trying to save a faltering marriage while wooing a beautiful young reporter on the side.

Other failed attempts to find a mass television audience include Apple pie, Drexells Class (in which he played an inside trader) and Crazy about the peopleanother news show in which he clashed this time with his young boss, who was also his daughter.

He fares better in a leading role in The Guardian (2001-2004), in which he plays the father of a crooked lawyer. And he enjoyed the role of Principal Prickly in the Disney animated series. Break from 1997 to 2003.

Behind all this bravery was a reserved man. Coleman insisted he was really, really shy. I've been shy all my life. This perhaps comes from the fact that he is the last of four children, all very handsome, including a brother who was the handsome Tyrone Power. Maybe it's because my father died when I was 4, he told the Associated Press in 1984. “I was extremely small, just a little guy who was there, the kid who did not create any problems. I was attracted to fantasy and I created games for myself.

As he grew older, he also began to leave his mark on pompous authority figures, notably in the 1998s. My date with the president's daughterin which he was not only a selfish and self-centered President of the United States, but also the distraught father of a teenage girl.

Dabney Coleman, his real name, was born in 1932 in Austin, Texas. After two years at the Virginia Military Academy, two at the University of Texas and two in the Army, he was a law student at age 26 when he met fellow Austin native Zachry Scott, who played In Mildred Pierce and other films.

He was the most dynamic person I have ever met. He convinced me that I should become an actor and I literally left the next day to study in New York. He didn't think it was too wise, but I made up my mind, Coleman told the AP in 1984.

Early credits included TV shows such as Ben Casey, Dr Kildare, The outer limits, Bargain And The mod team. He appeared on Broadway in 1961 in An appeal to Kuprin. He played Kevin Costner's father in Yellow stone.

Twice divorced, Coleman is survived by four children, Meghan, Kelly, Randy and Quincy.

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Mark Kennedy can be reached at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits