James Tolkan

James Tolkan
Born	James Stewart Tolkan (1931-06-20) June 20, 1931 (age 87) Calumet, Michigan, U.S.
Other names	James S. Tolkan, Jim Tolkan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1960–2015
Spouse(s)	Parmelee Welles[1][2]

James Stewart Tolkan (born June 20, 1931) is an American actor, known for his work in films such as Serpico, Top Gun and the Back to the Future franchise.

Contents

• 
  1 Early life
  


• 
  2 Career
  


• 
  3 Personal life
  


• 
  4 Filmography
  
  
  
  • 
    4.1 Actor
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Early life

James Stewart Tolkan^[1] was born in Calumet, Michigan, the son of Dale Nichols and Ralph M. Tolkan,^[3] a cattle dealer. He attended the University of Iowa, Coe College, the Actors Studio and Eastern Arizona College.^[4]

Career

Tolkan is known for his role in the 1985 film Back to the Future as the strict Hill Valley High School principal, Stanford S. Strickland; the character refers to Marty McFly, his father, and Biff Tannen derisively as "slackers". He would reprise the role in the 1989 sequel Back to the Future Part II, in which unnamed gang members make a drive-by assault on him in a dystopian 1985; he also refers to these criminals as "slackers" as he shoots back. In 1990, he played the part of Mr. Strickland's grandfather Chief Marshal James Strickland in Back to the Future Part III. Tolkan would again reprise his role as Strickland in addition to playing his character's ancestors and descendants in the 1991 animated series spin-off.

Other well-known roles include an FBI agent in WarGames and Stinger, the no-nonsense commanding officer of USS Enterprise's embarked Carrier Air Wing in the 1986 box-office hit Top Gun. He portrayed the role of cold and determined District Attorney Polito in Sidney Lumet's Prince of the City. He also appeared in the 1987 film Masters of the Universe as Detective Lubic. He had a dual role in the Woody Allen comedy Love and Death, playing both Napoleon and a look-alike.^[5] He also appeared as Big Boy Caprice's accountant "Numbers" in the 1990 Warren Beatty film Dick Tracy. He appeared in Serpico (1973) in a small but notable role as a cop who loudly accuses Officer Serpico of having a gay encounter with another cop in the men's room.

Tolkan has also made guest appearances on many TV shows, including Naked City, Remington Steele, Miami Vice and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.^[6]

A member of the repertory cast of A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–02), he played more than a dozen varied roles in the A&E TV series and also directed two episodes^[5] ("Die Like a Dog" and "The Next Witness").

Personal life

On August 28, 1971, Tolkan married Parmelee Welles, a staffer at the American Place Theater in New York.^[1]

Filmography

Actor

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1960	Naked City (TV series)	Evan Humboldt	"The Man Who Bit a Diamond in Half"
1962	Armstrong Circle Theatre (TV series)	Stefan Malwitz	"The Man Who Refused to Die"
1966	The Three Sisters
1969	N.Y.P.D.		"The Night Watch"
	Stiletto	Edwards
1971	They Might Be Giants	Mr. Brown
1973	The Friends of Eddie Coyle	The Man's contact man
	The Werewolf of Washington	Dark Glasses
	Serpico	Lt. Steiger
1975	Love and Death	Napoleon Bonaparte
1976	Independence	Tom Paine
1979	The Amityville Horror	Coroner
1981	Wolfen	Baldy
	Prince of the City	District Attorney Polito
1982	Hanky Panky	Conferee
	Author! Author!	Lt. Glass
1983	Wings (TV)	Billy
	WarGames	FBI Agent Nigan
	Nightmares	Voice of the Bishop	(segment) "The Bishop of Battle"
1984	Iceman	Maynard
	The River	Howard Simpson
1985	Turk 182!	Hanley
	Hill Street Blues	Coach Beasley	"Queen for a Day"
	Back to the Future	Stanford Strickland
	Walls of Glass	Turner
1985–1986	Mary (TV series)	Lester Mintz
1985–1987	Remington Steele (TV series)	Norman Keyes	"Diced Steele" "Forged Steele" "Bonds of Steele" "The Steele That Wouldn't Die"
1986	Off Beat	Harry
	Top Gun	Commander Tom "Stinger" Jardian
	Armed and Dangerous	Lou Brackman
	Little Spies	The Kennel Master
1987	Masters of the Universe	Detective Lubic
	Made in Heaven	Mr. Bjornstead
	Miami Vice	Mason Mather	"Amen ... Send Money"
1988	Weekend War (TV)	Dr. Alex Thompson
	Viper	Col. William Tansey
	Leap of Faith (TV)	Dr. Siegel
	Split Decisions	Benny Pistone
1989	The Equalizer (TV series)	Ruger	"The Visitation"
	The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (TV)
	True Blood	Det. Joseph Hanley
	Second Sight	Coolidge
	Back to the Future Part II	Stanford Strickland
	Ministry of Vengeance	Col. Freeman
	Family Business	Judge in 2nd Trial
1990	Opportunity Knocks	Sal Nichols
	Sunset Beat (TV series)	Ray Parker	"One Down, Four Up"
	Back to the Future Part III	Chief Marshal James Strickland
	Dick Tracy	Numbers
	The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air	Dr. Oates (alias Dr. Bloat)	"Day Damn One"
1991	Hangfire	Patch
	Trabbi Goes to Hollywood	Vince
	Tales from the Crypt (TV series)	Sgt. McClaine	"The Trap"
	Problem Child 2	Mr. Thorn
1992	Tequila and Bonetti (TV series)		"Fetch This, Pal"
	Sketch Artist (TV)	Lt. Tonelli
	The Hat Squad (TV series)	Mike Ragland	"The Widow Marker"
	Bloodfist IV: Die Trying	Agent Sterling
1993	The Wonder Years (TV series)	Coach Silva	"Hulk Arnold"
	Boiling Point	Levitt
1993–1994	Cobra (TV series)	Dallas Cassel
1994	Beyond Betrayal (TV)	Joe Maloney
1995	Sketch Artist II: Hands That See (TV)	Tonelli
1996	Top Gun: Fire at Will (video game)	Commander Hondo
	Nowhere Man (TV series)	Commander Cyrus Quinn	"Heart of Darkness"
	Underworld	Dan "Iceberg" Eagan
	Robo Warriors	Quon
	Early Edition (TV series)	Coach Phillips	"Hoops"
1997	Love in Ambush (TV)	Agent Price
	The Pretender (TV series)	FBI Special Agne Korkos	"Dragon House"
1999	Wings: Thrill of Flight	Host
2001–2002	A Nero Wolfe Mystery (TV series)	Richard Wragg Mr. Hackett Bernard Quest W.J. Mr. Joseph Pitcairn Percy Ludlow Avery Ballou Loftus, Dog Expert Leo Bingham Adrian Dart Benedict Aiken Ben Jenson Richard Wragg Ed Graboff	"The Doorbell Rang" "Champagne for One" "Prisoner's Base" "Disguise for Murder" "Door to Death" "Over My Dead Body" "Death of a Doxy" "Die Like a Dog" "Motherhunt" "Poison à la Carte" "Too Many Clients" "Help Wanted, Male" "The Silent Speaker" "Cop Killer"
2004	Seven Times Lucky	Dutch
2006	Heavens Fall	Thomas Knight Sr.
2011	Leverage (TV series)	Dean Chesny	"The Cross My Heart Job"
2013	Phil Spector	Larry Fidler	TV film
2015	Bone Tomahawk	The Pianist

References

1. 
   ^ ^abc "Miss Welles Wed to Actor". The New York Times. August 29, 1971.
   


2. 
   ^ "James Tolkan profile". ancestry.com. Retrieved June 15, 2017..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


3. 
   ^ "James Tolkan Biography". Film Reference.
   


4. 
   ^ Yahoo Movies biography Archived August 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
   


5. 
   ^ ^ab "Tolkan Donates Scripts, Memorabilia To UNA Archives". BTTF.com. April 26, 2012. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
   


6. 
   ^ "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Season 1 Episode 14". TVGuide.com. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
   

External links

• 
  James Tolkan on IMDb


• 
  James Tolkan at the Internet Broadway Database
  


• 
  James Tolkan at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
  

Authority control	BNE: XX5397476 BNF: cb140448101 (data) ISNI: 0000 0001 1458 0083 LCCN: no99082981 NKC: xx0098004 SNAC: w6109z1k VIAF: 162433143 WorldCat Identities (via VIAF): 162433143

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