Early life

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. He was drafted in 1953 to the United States Army and served in Europe.

Career

Coleman is a character actor who has a wide range, with over 60 films to his credit. He trained with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater from 1958-60. Early roles in his career included a US Olympic skiing team coach in the Robert Redford 1969 film Downhill Racer, a high-ranking superior San Francisco deputy fire chief to battalion chief Steve McQueen in The Towering Inferno (1974) and a wealthy Westerner whose champion horse is entered in a long-distance race against that of Gene Hackman and others in Bite the Bullet (1975). He portrayed an FBI Special Agent in the NBC-TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975).

He eventually landed the main antagonist part of Franklin Hart, Jr., a sexist boss on whom three female office employees (Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin) get their revenge in 1980's Nine to Five. It was this film that established Coleman in the character type he is most identified with and has frequently played since - a comic relief villain. (He had played earlier versions of such characters in the Elvis Presley vehicle The Trouble with Girls as well as an appearance in a 1962 AMC Rambler commercial.) Coleman followed up Nine to Five with the role of the arrogant, sexist, soap opera director in Tootsie (1982), further enforcing audiences' identification of him as a smarmy, devious foil to a film's main character. He broke from this type somewhat, however, in his portrayal of military computer scientist John McKittrick in WarGames (1983).

Coleman received his first Emmy nomination for his lead role in the critically acclaimed, though short-lived, TV series Buffalo Bill. In 1987, he received an Emmy Award for his role in the TV movie Sworn to Silence. He appeared in the feature film On Golden Pond (1981), playing the fiance of Chelsea Thayer Wayne (Jane Fonda). Coleman played a Hugh Hefner-ish magazine mogul in the comedy Dragnet (1987), Bobcat Goldthwait's boss (wearing, inexplicably, a set of fake teeth) in the 1988 talking-horse comedy Hot to Trot, and befuddled banker Milburn Drysdale in the feature film The Beverly Hillbillies (1993).

Coleman played Gerald Ellis in Clifford (1994), with Martin Short in the title role. He also played a philandering father in You've Got Mail (1998). More recently, Coleman appeared as a casino owner in 2005's Domino. He received acclaim as Burton Fallin in the TV series The Guardian (2001-04). For two seasons, from 2010 to 2011, Coleman was a series regular on HBO's hit series Boardwalk Empire.

On November 6, 2014, Coleman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Personal life

Coleman has been married twice. He was married to Ann Courtney Harrell from 1957 to 1959 and to Jean Hale from 1961 to 1984. He has four children: Meghan, Kelly, Randy, and Quincy. He resides in the Brentwood district of Los Angeles.

In 1998, Coleman worked with fellow actor Bronson Pinchot at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, to help protect local forests and helped lead a campaign to educate others on how to care for and protect forests nationwide.

Coleman is an avid tennis player, playing for the US Army while posted in Europe and later winning some celebrity and charity tournaments.

Selected filmography

• Naked City (1961)
• The Outer Limits ("The Mice"; 1963)
• The Outer Limits ("Wolf 359"; 1964)
• The Donna Reed Show (1965)
• The Slender Thread (1965)
• This Property Is Condemned (1966)
• That Girl (1966-67)
• Dundee and the Culhane (1967)
• The Fugitive (1967)
• The Invaders (1967)
• The Scalphunters (1968)
• The Trouble with Girls (1969)
• Downhill Racer (1969)
• The Mod Squad (1969)
• I Love My Wife (1970)
• The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970)
• The President's Plane is Missing (1973)
• Cinderella Liberty (1973)
• Columbo ("Double Shock"; 1973)
• The Dove (1974)
• Bad Ronald (1974)
• McMillan and Wife ("Cross and Double Cross"; 1974)
• Kojak (1974)
• The Towering Inferno (1974)
• Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975)
• Black Fist (1975)
• Bite the Bullet (1975)
• The Other Side of the Mountain (1975)
• McMillan and Wife: Aftershock (1975)
• The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1976)
• Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (TV) (1976-77)
• Midway (1976)
• Viva Knievel! (1977)
• Rolling Thunder (1977)
• Quincy, M.E. (1977)
• North Dallas Forty (1979)
• Pray TV (1980)
• How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980)
• Melvin and Howard (1980)
• 9 to 5 (1980)
• Nothing Personal (1980)
• On Golden Pond (1981)
• Modern Problems (1981)
• Young Doctors in Love (1982)
• Tootsie (1982)
• Buffalo Bill (TV) (1983-84)
• WarGames (1983)
• Cloak & Dagger (1984)
• The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984)
• The Man with One Red Shoe (1985)
• Fresno (TV miniseries; 1986)
• Dragnet (1987)
• The Slap Maxwell Story (TV; 1987-88)
• Hot to Trot (1988)
• Where the Heart Is (1990)
• Short Time (1990)
• Never Forget (1991)
• Drexell's Class (TV) (1991-92)
• Meet the Applegates (1991)
• Columbo ("Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star; 1991)
• Amos & Andrew (1993)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
• Clifford (1994)
• Madman of the People (TV) (1994-1995)
• Witch Way Love (1997)
• Exiled: A Law & Order Movie (1998)
• You've Got Mail (1998)
• My Date with the President's Daughter (1998)
• Inspector Gadget (1999)
• Stuart Little (1999)
• Recess: School's Out (2001)
• The Guardian (2001-04)
• Moonlight Mile (2002)
• Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
• Domino (2005)
• Heartland (2007)
• Law & Order: SVU: "Snatched" (2009)
• Boardwalk Empire (2010-11)
• Pound Puppies (animated TV series; Season One only)

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Nominated work	Result
1983	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	Buffalo Bill	Nominated
1984	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy		Nominated
1984	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series		Nominated
1987	CableACE Awards	Actor in a Movie or Miniseries	Murrow	Nominated
1987	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Sworn to Silence	Won
1988	Golden Globe Awards	Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy	The Slap Maxwell Story	Won
1988		Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film	Sworn to Silence	Nominated
1988	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series	The Slap Maxwell Story	Nominated
1988		Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie	Baby M	Nominated
1991		Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	Columbo	Nominated
2011	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Boardwalk Empire	Won
2012				Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]