Brady Coleman

Short Biography

Screen actor, musician, and former Movement lawyer, Brady Coleman is joined by his band, The Melancholy Ramblers, who perform live, and by Coleman's former law partner, Jim Simons. Brady Coleman was a radical lawyer from the late ‘60s through the '80s, working with a movement law commune in Austin, Texas. He and his original partners -- Jim Simons and Cam Cunningham -- were heavily involved in major anti-war and civil rights litigation, defending campus radicals, black, Chicano, and American Indian activists, and anti-war GIs -- in Texas and around the country. Jim Simons joins Coleman to discuss their late law partner, Cam Cunningham, who died earlier this month. Simons wrote about Cunningham in a July 15 tribute in The Rag Blog.Brady Coleman eventually gave up his law practice to work full-time in theater, film, and music. He has appeared in more than 50 films, from "What’s Eating Gilbert Gr*pe, " to Richard Linklater’s highly-acclaimed 2011 movie, "Bernie, " in which Brady played attorney Scrappy Holmes -- and in television series including "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "Friday Night Lights." The Melancholy Ramblers -- featuring Coleman, Frances Barton, and Marco Perella -- are a popular Austin band that play an eclectic mix of country, folk, gospel, honky-tonk -- and the occasional Irish revolutionary anthem.