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Danny Coulson

FBi executive

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ5220243
Source-derived summary

Danny Coulson (born June 29, 1941) is a former Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI. In his thirty-year tenure at the FBI, Coulson created and commanded the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team and commanded four field divisions.

As of Spring 2009, Danny Coulson is a successful security consultant, author, and guest speaker. His book No Heroes: Inside The FBI's Secret Counter-Terror Force was used as a dialogue reference for the 2008 Marvel Cinematic Universe debut film Iron Man, with the character of Agent Phil Coulson (portrayed by Clark Gregg) being named after him.

History

Coulson grew up on military bases as his father was in the military. As a young man, he wanted to become a professional musician, but instead opted to pursue a legal education. He earned a bachelor's degree in Government from Texas Christian University. He then attended Southern Methodist University where he earned his Law Degree. He passed the Texas Bar. He originally aspired to join the Navy, but a former FBI agent he knew encouraged him to apply to work for the Bureau. His parents were not pleased with his decision to forego a career as an attorney and his mother disowned him.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Danny Coulson” as fBi executive. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Danny, Coulson and executive.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 2009, 2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-06-29. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Danny, Coulson and executive providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Danny Coulson”, the useful work is to connect “fBi executive” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5220243. VIAF identifies the subject as 78409268. The Library of Congress control number is no99015948. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2009 and 2008.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Danny Coulson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Danny Coulson primary sources, Danny Coulson archive and Danny research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Danny Coulson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.