Dabney Coleman,

Dabney Coleman, the mustachioed character actor who specialised in smarmy villains just like the chauvinist boss in “9 to 5” and the nasty TV director in “Tootsie,” has died. He was 92.

Coleman died Thursday at his residence in Santa Monica, his daughter, Quincy Coleman, mentioned in a press release to CBS News. She mentioned he “took his last earthly breath peacefully and exquisitely,” at 1:50 p.m. native time surrounded by household.

“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,” she mentioned within the assertion. 

For 20 years, Coleman labored in motion pictures and TV exhibits as a gifted however largely unnoticed performer. That modified abruptly in 1976 when he was solid because the incorrigibly corrupt mayor of the hamlet of Fernwood in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” a satirical cleaning soap opera that was so excessive no community would contact it.

Producer Norman Lear lastly managed to syndicate the present, which starred Louise Lasser within the title position. It rapidly grew to become a cult favourite. Coleman’s character, Mayor Merle Jeeter, was particularly widespread, and his masterful, comedian deadpan supply didn’t go ignored by movie and community executives.

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

A six-footer with an ample black mustache, Coleman went on to make his mark in quite a few widespread movies, together with as a stressed-out laptop scientist in “War Games,” Tom Hanks’ father in “You’ve Got Mail,” and a firefighting official in “The Towering Inferno.”

He gained a Golden Globe for “The Slap Maxwell Story” and an Emmy Award for greatest supporting actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 small display screen authorized drama “Sworn to Silence.” Some of his latest credit embody “Ray Donovan” and a recurring position on “Boardwalk Empire,” for which he gained two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In the groundbreaking 1980 hit “9 to 5,” he was the “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” boss who tormented his unappreciated feminine underlings — Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton — till they turned the tables on him.

In 1981, he was Fonda’s caring, well-mannered boyfriend, who asks her father (performed by her real-life father, Henry Fonda) if he can sleep together with her throughout a go to to her dad and mom’ trip residence in “On Golden Pond.”

Opposite Dustin Hoffman in “Tootsie,” he was the obnoxious director of a daytime cleaning soap opera that Hoffman’s character joins by pretending to be a lady. Among Coleman’s different movies had been “North Dallas Forty,” “Cloak and Dagger,” “Dragnet,” “Meet the Applegates,” “Inspector Gadget” and “Stuart Little.” He reunited with Hoffman as a land developer in Brad Silberling’s “Moonlight Mile” with Jake Gyllenhaal.

Coleman’s obnoxious characters did not translate fairly as effectively on tv, the place he starred in a handful of community comedies. Although some grew to become cult favorites, just one lasted longer than two seasons, and a few critics questioned whether or not a sequence starring a lead character with completely no redeeming qualities may entice a mass viewers.

“Buffalo Bill” (1983-84) was a superb instance. It starred Coleman as “Buffalo Bill” Bittinger, the smarmy, conceited, dimwitted daytime speak present host who, sad at being relegated to the small-time market of Buffalo, New York, takes it out on everybody round him. Although neatly written and that includes a advantageous ensemble solid, it lasted solely two seasons.

Another was 1987’s “The Slap Maxwell Story,” wherein Coleman was a failed small-town sportswriter making an attempt to avoid wasting a faltering marriage whereas wooing a fantastic younger reporter on the aspect.

Other failed makes an attempt to discover a mass TV viewers included “Apple Pie,” “Drexell’s Class” (wherein he performed an inside dealer) and “Madman of the People,” one other newspaper present wherein he clashed this time along with his youthful boss, who was additionally his daughter.

He fared higher in a co-starring position in “The Guardian” (2001-2004), which had him enjoying the daddy of a crooked lawyer. And he loved the voice position as Principal Prickly on the Disney animated sequence “Recess” from 1997-2003.

Underneath all that bravura was a reserved man. Coleman insisted he was actually fairly shy. 

“I’ve been shy all my life. Maybe it stems from being the last of four children, all of them very handsome, including a brother who was Tyrone Power-handsome. Maybe it’s because my father died when I was 4,” he advised The Associated Press in 1984. “I was extremely small, just a little guy who was there, the kid who created no trouble. I was attracted to fantasy, and I created games for myself.”

As he aged, he additionally started to place his mark on pompous authority figures, notably in 1998’s “My Date With the President’s Daughter,” wherein he was not solely an egotistical, self-absorbed president of the United States, but additionally a clueless father to a teen lady.

Dabney Coleman was born in 1932 in Austin, Texas. After two years on the Virginia Military Academy, two on the University of Texas and two within the Army, he was a 26-year-old regulation scholar when he met one other Austin native, Zachry Scott, who starred in “Mildred Pierce” and different movies.

“He was the most dynamic person I’ve ever met. He convinced me I should become an actor, and I literally left the next day to study in New York. He didn’t think that was too wise, but I made my decision,” Coleman advised The AP in 1984.

Early credit included such TV exhibits as “Ben Casey,” “Dr Kildare,” “The Outer Limits,” “Bonanza,” “The Mod Squad” and the movie “The Towering Inferno.” He appeared on Broadway in 1961 in “A Call on Kuprin.” He performed Kevin Costner’s father on “Yellowstone.”

Twice divorced, Coleman is survived by his sister Beverly Coleman McCall and his 4 youngsters, Meghan, Kelly, Randy and Quincy, and 5 grandchildren.