Tolkan was famed for his performance in ‘Top Gun’ as well.
James Tolkan, the veteran character actor famed for his roles as the strict Mr. Strickland in the Back to the Future trilogy and Commander Stinger in Top Gun, has passed away.
James Tolkan’s death was announced by a family spokesperson and confirmed by Back to the Future writer-producer Bob Gale, who wrote on the franchise’s website that Tolkan “passed away peacefully in Saranac Lake, NY” on Thursday.
Tolkan’s career spanned more than five decades in film and television, beginning with a 1960 appearance in the TV series Naked City and continuing through 2024, when he appeared in the documentary Tom Wilson: Humbly Super Famous.
However, it was his work in the 1980s that cemented his place in pop culture. As vice principal Mr. Strickland, he appeared in the original Back to the Future (1985) and returned for the 1989 sequel. In the third film (1990), he portrayed Strickland’s grandfather.
In Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1986), he played Commander Tom Jardian alongside Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Meg Ryan.
Tolkan’s broader filmography was extensive and diverse, including roles in Serpico, WarGames, The Amityville Horror, Masters of the Universe, and many others, as well as television appearances on The Wonder Years, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and more.
Born on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Michigan, James Tolkan served in the US Navy before attending Coe College and the University of Iowa.
It was during his time at university that someone advised him to move to New York if he wanted to pursue acting seriously.
In 1956, Tolkan boarded a Greyhound bus with just $75 in his pocket and no connections in the city. “I didn’t know a soul in New York,” he recalled in a 2021 interview.
Though scared and short on money, he worked as a busboy on Central Park South to make ends meet. He later described that period as “the greatest time of my life. It was full of promise and possibilities.”
Tolkan is survived by his wife, Parmelee, whom he met in 1971 while she worked as a prop girl on the off-Broadway play Pinkville. The couple married that same year in Lake Placid.
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