James Tolkan in Back to the Future James Tolkan died at 94 on Thursday, March 26 in Saranac Lake, N.Y.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n Tolkan famously starred as Mr. Strickland in the Back to the Future<\/em> franchise<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n “He was just one of the kindest men you would ever meet,” a crew member who worked on Back to the Future <\/em>tells PEOPLE of the late actor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n James Tolkan, who famously starred as Mr. Strickland in the Back to the Future<\/em><\/a> franchise and as the stern Commander Tom “Stinger” Jardian in Top Gun<\/em>, has died. He was 94.<\/p>\n Tolkan died in Saranac Lake, N.Y., on Thursday, March 26, the late actor’s management confirmed to PEOPLE.<\/p>\n “I dearly, dearly loved Mr. Tolkan,” a crew member who worked on Back to the Future<\/em> tells PEOPLE of the late actor.<\/p>\n “I saw him at the last convention he did this past October,” the crew member tells PEOPLE. “Well, we sat next to each other, you know, meeting fans. He was so good with the fans because he never turned down a request to do a photo nose-to-nose like he was with Michael [J. Fox] in the movie, and you know, call them slackers and and play with them.”<\/p>\n “Any time I got a chance to see James was just delightful,” the crew member adds. “As mean and nasty as Mr. Strickland was, James Tolkan was the polar opposite. He was just one of the kindest men you would ever meet.”<\/p>\n The actor, who was originally from Michigan, “cycled through Chicago after his parents divorced and wound up in Tuscon, Arizona where he graduated Amphitheater High School in 1949,” according to a statement shared by Tolkan’s management.<\/p>\n Tolkan went on to serve in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, and moved to New York City following his military service, where he studied acting with both Stella Adler and Lee Strasburg’s acting studios. Tolkan was a member of the original ensemble cast of Glengarry Glen Ross <\/em>on Broadway. The play most recently had a Broadway revival in 2025 that starred Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk and Bill Burr.<\/p>\n Sidney Lumet directed Tolkan in several films, including Serpico<\/em>\u00a0alongside Al Pacino<\/a> in 1973, in\u00a0Prince of the City<\/em>\u00a0in 1981, and as a judge in\u00a0Family Business<\/em>\u00a0in 1989.<\/p>\n James Tolkan during “Back To The Future” Reunion And DVD Launch Party at Universal backlot in Universal City, California, United States. One of Tolkan’s most beloved roles was as Mr. Strickland in Back to the Future<\/em> in 1985. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Tolkan played a humorously strict high school vice principal who frequently called his students, notably Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox<\/a>), “slackers.” He reprised the role in Back to the Future Part II<\/em> and played one of Strickland’s ancestors in Back to the Future Part III<\/em>.<\/p>\n James Tolkan He went on to appear in another 1980s classic\u2014Top Gun<\/em>, as Tom Cruises’s CO Stinger.\u00a0He continued to appear in film and television roles through 2011.<\/p>\n The actor first visited the Lake Placid, N.Y., area in the 1970s with his wife, who had spent her childhood summers there, his management said in a statement. In 1996, he “built a home to show off the art he had collected over the years when he was unemployed,” according to the statement.<\/p>\n
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