Dabney Coleman
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Colemanis an American actor best known for roles in the films On Golden Pond, 9 to 5, Cloak & Dagger, Tootsie, WarGames, You've Got Mail and on television as Burton Fallin on the CBS series The Guardian, Louis "The Commodore" Kaestner on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, the title character in the NBC series Buffalo Bill and the voice of Principal Prickly in the animated series Recess...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth3 January 1932
CityAustin, TX
CountryUnited States of America
I think most directors cast, after a certain period, cast actors because they trust that actor, they know that actor, they know what he can do.
I got into it for selfish reasons. To just do my thing. To learn how to do and to just do it. It was just a very exciting idea, of doing that.
No not pigeon holed me as an actor, or as a character, or as to what I could do - but what I would do... and the fact is the things you don't do are almost as important as as the things that you do.
But movies as much as anything developed what I thought was right and wrong, what was honorable, what wasn't, what was funny what wasn't... what had some depth to it, what didn't.
Then they made an extra out of me and I stood around in a crowd, but I got paid for an actor job, not an extra. And that was my first part.
To tell you the truth I am hard put to think of anyone who's career was affected significantly by making all those phone calls and I must be wrong. I must be wrong! Because it has just got to pay off!
I work with Sally and I can see Sally doing that. She is very aggressive. Very fun loving and charming... and pushy in a very competitive way and a very healthy way and a very good actress.
The next night I got on an airplane, and flew to New York and looked into acting schools. Four or five acting schools. One of which was the Neighborhood Playhouse, which I started at six months there after.
But it is a hard, it's a hard profession teaching acting.
It takes a lot of energy to teach.
But it was this tough little character part that I was playing, a very funny little guy that I invented over a weekend, because I realized I was not contributing to the humor of this thing. And I had to do something.
When I go to where I was getting excellent parts in movies I may have taken a few too soon, too anxious to go back to work and to anxious to make another film and to succeed more.
I did two or three plays every summer.
I didn't have any extra money. But I can't say that I had a hard early career.