Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died "peacefully", but no cause of death was given.
In Back to the Future, Tolkan portrayed the bow tie-wearing vice-principal Gerald Strickland, who eyeballed students for trouble in the halls of the fictitious Hill Valley high school – in particular Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox. "You got a real attitude problem, McFly," Tolkan's character says in the 1985 film. "You're a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too."
Tolkan also appeared in Top Gun as commanding officer Tom "Stinger" Jardian. Near the end of the film, when Jardian asks Tom Cruise’s character, Capt Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, about his choice for future duty, Mitchell replies that he wants to be a Top Gun instructor. "God help us," Tolkan's character replies, laughing. Tolkan's big-screen résumé also included The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Amityville Horror, Wolfen, WarGames, Masters of the Universe, True Blood and Opportunity Knocks.
Born on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Michigan, James Stewart Tolkan cycled through Chicago after his parents divorced and wound up in Tucson, Arizona, where he graduated from Amphitheater High School in 1949. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he attended Coe College and the University of Iowa, came to New York with $75 in his pocket and studied with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio, where Beatty was a classmate in 1956.
He made his onscreen debut in 1960 on an episode of ABC's Naked City, and in 1966 he understudied for Robert Duvall before replacing him as bad guy Harry Roat in the original Broadway production of Wait Until Dark, starring Lee Remick.
Later, Tolkan played insurance investigator Norman Keyes on five episodes of NBC’s Remington Steele and several characters over 21 installments of A&E’s A Nero Wolfe Mystery (he directed a couple of episodes as well). He also guest-starred on Miami Vice, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Wonder Years, Leverage and many other shows.
Survivors include his wife, Parmelee, who worked at the American Place Theater as a costumes and scenery painter. They met on the set of the 1971 off-Broadway play Pinkville when he was acting in it and she was a prop girl, and they married that year in Lake Placid. Donations in his memory can be made to your local animal shelter, animal rescue organization or Humane Society chapter.
Tolkan also played Napoleon and his look-alike in Woody Allen’s Love and Death and was the crooked accountant known as Numbers who works for Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.He appeared in three movies directed by Sidney Lumet: as a cop in the Pacino-starring Serpico, as a determined D.A. in Prince of the City and as a judge in Family Business.On Broadway, Tolkan portrayed salesman Dave Moss in the original 1984-85 production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. (Ed Harris played the character in the 1992 movie adaptation.)
Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.
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