Dabney Coleman, Who Built a Career Out of Playing Jerks, Dies at 92

The popular comic actor from 9 to 5, Tootsie, and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman whose many redeeming qualities including a knack for portraying characters who had none, has died. He was 92. Coleman died Thursday at home in Santa Monica, his daughter, singer Quincy Coleman, told The Hollywood Reporter. "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 said. "As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery. ''A teacher, a hero and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy -- eternally." Coleman proved it again as the chauvinistic, backstabbing boss Franklin Hart Jr. in the workplace comedy 9 to 5, the 1980 cinematic paragon of women's lib that starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and, in her movie debut, Dolly Parton. In Tootsie (1982), directed by his longtime friend and mentor Sydney Pollack, Coleman played the sexist TV director who's dating an actress (Jessica Lange) on his soap opera, Southwest General.