A personable Everyman with a knack for both deadpan comedy and heavy drama, Craig T. Nelson was a Los Angeles-based comic and gag writer before making his acting debut in 1971. Featured in largely minor roles for much of the 1970s and early 1980s, he knocked one out of the park as the protective father of a suburban family under attack by supernatural forces in the monster summer hit, “Poltergeist” (1982), as well as in the less successful sequels. Television would bring him wider exposure as the star of two popular series: the long-running sitcom “Coach” (ABC, 1989-1997) and “The District”