Actor James Tolkan, known for his role as the principal of Hill Valley High in “Back to the Future” and the serious commanding officer in “Top Gun,” has died. He was 94 years old.
Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, told the Associated Press on Saturday.
In “Back to the Future,” Tolkan played Vice Principal Gerald Strickland, who inspected the school hallways with a whistle around his neck and a tardy note that burned a hole in his pocket.
“You've got a real attitude problem, McFly,” Tolkan's character snaps at Michael J. Fox's character Marty McFly in the 1985 cult classic film. “You're lazy. You remind me of your dad when he came here. He was lazy too.”
The line became one of Tolkan's most famous, and megafans flocked to Comic-Cons across the country to ask the star to call them lazy, requests to which he usually granted.
The actor had several film and television jobs during the 1960s and '70s, but was doing David Mement's Broadway play “Glengarry Glen Ross” when he received the offer to play Strickland in “Back to the Future.”
“I always said, 'I'll never go to Hollywood until they send for me,'” Restani told TC during an interview in 2015. “And I said, okay, this is my chance. And of course, no one realized it was going to be such a big movie. But it was. It was one of those wonderful events where all the planets aligned and 'Back to the Future' became the breakout star of a movie.”
Tolkan was also known for goading Maverick and Goose with quick reprimands and tough love between drags on his cigarette as their commanding officer, Tom “Stinger” Jardian, in the 1986 blockbuster “Top Gun.”
“That was very special, because when you make a movie you never know, but on 'Top Gun' everyone felt like it was going to be a hit,” Tolkan told Bob McCarthy during an interview at Comic-Con in 2016. “They just felt it, they knew it from day one.”
Born on June 20, 1931 in Calumet, Michigan, Tolkan was the son of a cattle dealer: Ralph M. Tolkan. He moved away during his teens, spending time in Chicago and landing in Arizona after his parents' divorce. It was there that his athletic abilities got him noticed by the Eastern Arizona College football coach. Tolkan earned a scholarship to college, but his academic career was short-lived and he left to enlist in the US Navy.
After a year of service during the Korean War, he was discharged due to heart disease, and with $75 to his name he set off for the Big Apple to try his hand at acting. In New York, Tolkan studied with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg at the famous Actors Studio and began landing stage roles before hitting the big screen.
Although his experience in the military influenced the types of roles Tolkan would play (army office, Air Force commander, police lieutenant, lawyer), his work as an actor was his passion. “If you choose to be an actor, you have to choose “To be an actor, you have to keep going through thick and thin,” he told a FanX audience member during a 2023 panel at the Salt Lake City pop culture convention. “When things get tough, you can't think about doing anything else. You have to tell yourself, 'I'm going to do this.'”
Tolkan's other notable acting projects include the 1973 film “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino; the 1981 film “Prince of the City”; the role of Napoleon in Woody Allen's 1975 film, “Love and Death”; and the 1983 film “War Games,” in which he starred alongside Matthew Broderick.
Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.
