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The veteran character actor Dabney Coleman<\/a> died Thursday at 92. Coleman began appearing in movies and TV series in the 1960s, when he was in his early 30s, and from the beginning, he had the look and the attitude of a grumpy middle-aged man.<\/p>\n For most of his career \u2014 except on those rare occasions when he got to play a lead role \u2014 Coleman\u2019s job was to pop in for a scene or two to growl and grumble in a manner that was generally both humorous and more than a little scary. He reliably brought the kind of antagonistic energy familiar to anyone who has ever dealt with a bad boss or a disgruntled customer.<\/p>\n Much of Coleman\u2019s best TV work \u2014 like the short-lived sitcoms \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d and \u201cThe Slap Maxwell Story,\u201d and the soap opera parody \u201cMary Hartman, Mary Hartman\u201d \u2014 aren\u2019t available to stream. And while he had roles in dozens of very good films and TV shows, he was often low in the billing. The seven Coleman performances below, though, are both outstanding and substantial, showcasing his imposing screen presence and ace comic timing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After nearly 20 years in the business, Coleman\u2019s career really took off in the 1980s, when producers started casting him in parts that let him hang around onscreen a little longer. He had his breakout performance in this hit comedy, which stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton as secretaries who try to overcome corporate sexism by imprisoning their boss. Coleman plays that piggish executive, whose disrespect for women in general (and these three employees in particular) is so infuriating to watch that audiences couldn\u2019t wait to see him get his comeuppance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Rent or buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Coleman teamed again with Jane Fonda a year later for an Oscar-winning big-screen adaptation of Ernest Thompson\u2019s play \u201cOn Golden Pond,\u201d a passion project for the actress, who wanted to work with her aging father, Henry Fonda. Coleman only has a small part in the film, playing Bill, the fianc\u00e9 of Jane Fonda\u2019s character Chelsea, the estranged daughter of Henry Fonda\u2019s prickly Norman. Coleman gets to hit some of his usual sour notes when Bill stands up to Norman\u2019s passive-aggressive bullying, but he\u2019s not the villain of the story this time. He\u2019s a decent man who just won\u2019t be pushed too far, a Coleman character shown in a somewhat more flattering light.<\/p>\n Stream it on <\/em>Peacock<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>Tubi<\/em><\/a>; rent or buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Google Play<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Like \u201c9 to 5,\u201d this is a zeitgeist-grabbing comedy about endemic sexism in an American cultural institution. But for once, Coleman\u2019s character isn\u2019t the biggest chauvinist in the room. He plays Ron, a soap opera director trying to get the best from his new star, Dorothy Michaels (Dustin Hoffman) \u2014 who is actually a struggling New York theater actor named Michael Dorsey posing as a woman and dealing with the handsiness of his blustery co-star John Van Horn (George Gaynes). Ron\u2019s no-nonsense attitude and wry asides amount to only one piece of the film\u2019s fast-paced, intricate comic rhythms. But it is an important piece, and Coleman is as much of a pro as the character he\u2019s playing, hitting his beats with precision.<\/p>\n Rent or buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Google Play<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Whenever Coleman wasn\u2019t playing an out-and-out jerk (or a misunderstood jerk, as was the case with \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d and \u201cSlap Maxwell\u201d), he often took on the role of a snappish authority figure. The richest of those performances came in this Cold War thriller. Coleman played Dr. John McKittrick, an engineer keeping an eye out for Soviet missile attacks at NORAD. When a curious teenage hacker (Matthew Broderick) accidentally triggers a simulated thermonuclear war that threatens to go global, McKittrick\u2019s distrust of this kid runs the risk of making the situation worse. The surly Coleman perfectly embodies the kind of well-meaning bureaucracy that may not be able to adapt in time to stave off an apocalypse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Stream it on <\/em>Max<\/em><\/a>; rent or buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Google Play<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Coleman first appeared in \u201cColumbo\u201d in the 1973 episode \u201cDouble Shock,\u201d in which he played a Los Angeles detective who appears in just a few scenes. By 1991, though, he had become a big enough name to be one of the show\u2019s guest villains: a shady attorney who murders his duplicitous girlfriend and frames her lover. Coleman\u2019s character is one of those \u201cColumbo\u201d killers who gets easily irritated by the relentlessness of the rumpled lieutenant (Peter Falk), making it all the more entertaining as his clever alibi gets gradually peeled away.<\/p>\n Stream it on <\/em>Peacock<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>Tubi<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Later in his career, Coleman landed a plum role in this CBS drama, playing a respected lawyer trying to reestablish a relationship with his wayward son, Nick (Simon Baker), a lawyer who has been sentenced to work with children as part of his community service for a drug offense. It is a complicated character, allowing Coleman to show a softer side while still having plenty of opportunities to bark orders and deliver withering wisecracks.<\/p>\n Stream it on <\/em>Paramount+<\/em><\/a>; buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Coleman had another late-career highlight with this HBO period crime drama, which he guest starred on throughout its first two seasons. He played Commodore Louis Kaestner, an early 20th century Atlantic City politician and business mogul who remains a puppet-master well into the Prohibition era, even as his prot\u00e9g\u00e9s battle each other for power. Coleman plays the character as a frail but formidable man who relies on the city\u2019s collective memory of all that he built \u2014 and everyone he hurt \u2014 to maintain control. \u201cBoardwalk Empire\u201d viewers didn\u2019t need to see the Commodore in his heyday in order to understand why so many of the show\u2019s antiheroes were still scared of him. To the end, Coleman could command attention and make people nervous.<\/p>\n Stream it on <\/em>Max<\/em><\/a>; buy it on <\/em>Amazon Prime Video<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Apple TV<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>Google Play<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u20189 to 5\u2019 (1980)<\/h2>\n
\u2018On Golden Pond\u2019 (1981)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Tootsie\u2019 (1982)<\/h2>\n
\u2018WarGames\u2019 (1983)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star\u2019 (1991)<\/h2>\n
\u2018The Guardian\u2019 (2001-04)<\/h2>\n
\u2018Boardwalk Empire\u2019 (2010-11)<\/h2>\n