James Tolkan, 94, Back to the Future and Top Gun
From
Travoltron@Travoltron@fakeemail.org to
alt.obituaries on Sat Mar 28 08:29:29 2026
From Newsgroup: alt.online-service.comcas
James Tolkan, who played the slacker-hating Mr. Strickland in the Back
to the Future films and a air group commanding officer rCLStingerrCY Jardian in Top Gun during a 55-year film, TV and stage career, died Thursday in Saranac Lake, NY. He was 94.
The news was announced on the official Back to the Future website, which
noted that he passed away peacefully but did not provide a cause.
Born on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Michigan, Tolkan did a short stint in
the U.S. Navy during the Korean War before going to acting school in New
York City. He started out in local theater and eventually would appear
in nine Broadway shows, notably playing salesman Dave Moss in the
original cast of Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984-85.
TolkanrCOs first screen credits were guest turns in such 1960s TV series
as Naked City and N.Y.P.D. along with films including The Three Sisters
and Stiletto. He was working regularly by the 1970s, appearing with Al
Pacino in Sidney LumetrCOs 1973 cop drama Serpico and then playing a dual
role as Napoleon and a lookalike in AllenrCOs 1975 Russian lit satire Love
and Death. He was a coroner in 1979rCOs The Amityville Horror.
Tolkan also had roles in such 1980s films as Wolfen, Prince of the City, Author! Author! rCo again with Pacino rCo and WarGames before landing his signature mid-rCO80s roles.
He was cast in Robert ZemeckisrCO wildly popular 1985 action comedy Back
to the Future as Mr. Strickland, the Hill Valley High School vice
principal with a noted spite for rCLSlackers,rCY as he called George McFly (Crispin Glover) and later Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox). He reprised the
role for the 1989 sequel Back to the Future II and StricklandrCOs Wild
West ancestor in Back to the Future III the following year.
Then came another role for which Tolkan would be widely recognized. He
played Tom rCLStingerrCY Jardian, Commander of the USS Enterprise Carrier
Air Group, who barks at Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Goose (Anthony
Edwards) early in the Tony Scott-directed blockbuster. Stinger later
briefs the recently graduated Top Gun pilots on their first mission.
Late in the movie, he gives Maverick his choice of duty and feigns
horror with the pilot tells him he wants to be a Top Gun instructor.
rCLGod help us,rCY Stinger replies.
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