Joining Coleman in speaking at the 11:30 am ceremony in front of the newly developed Eastown LA residential and shopping complex at 6141 Hollywood Blvd., will be Mark Rydell, who directed Coleman in the 1981 film “On Golden Pond,” and Dennis Klein, the head writer of the 1976-77 syndicated soap opera spoof “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and a writer-producer on the 1983-84 NBC comedy “Buffalo Bill.”
Born Jan. 3, 1932, in Austin, Texas and raised in Corpus Christi,Coleman attended the Virginia Military Institute and University Of Texas School Of Law before deciding on a career in acting.
Coleman trained with Stanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre from 1958-60. His early credits included the 1969 Elvis Presley film “The Trouble with Girls” and the 1969 Robert Redford skiing film “Downhill Race,” and appearances on television’s “Naked City,” “The Donna Reed Show” and “That Girl.”
In the 1970s Coleman appeared in such films as “The Towering Inferno,” “The Other Side of the Mountain,” “Midway” and “North Dallas Forty.”
On television during the decade, Coleman portrayed Merle Jeeter the shady father of a child preacher on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” who eventually became mayor of the fictional Fernwood, Ohio.
Coleman was established as a comic relief villain for his role as sexist boss Franklin Hart Jr. in the 1980 film comedy “Nine to Five.” His other film credits in the 1980s included “On Golden Pond,” “Tootsie,” “WarGames” and “Dragnet.”
Coleman is a six-time Emmy nominee, receiving an Emmy for his portrayal of defense attorney Martin Costigan in the 1987 ABC made-for-television movie “Sworn to Silence.”
Coleman received two outstanding lead actor in a comedy Emmy nominations for “Buffalo Bill” and one for “The Slap Maxwell Story.” His other Emmy nominations came for portrayals of attorneys in the 1988 ABC miniseries “Baby M,” and 1991’s “Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star.”
Coleman also starred in the series “Drexell’s Class” and “Madman of the People.” And he portrayed villainous aging mobster Commodore Louis Kaestner on the first two seasons of the HBO Prohibition era drama “Boardwalk Empire.”
Coleman’s other film credits include “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “You’ve Got Mail” and “Stuart Little.”
