{"id":2349921,"date":"2026-03-29T07:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2349921"},"modified":"2026-03-29T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T07:38:13","slug":"back-to-the-future-and-top-gun-star-james-tolkan-dies-at-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/back-to-the-future-and-top-gun-star-james-tolkan-dies-at-94\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Back To The Future&#8217; and &#8216;Top Gun&#8217; star James Tolkan dies at 94"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><h2>News of his death has sparked tributes from the entertainment industry and fans around the world. <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cSlacker! You\u2019re too much like your old man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These are the infamous words of James Tolkan from the iconic Back to the Future movies, who has died at the ripe old age of 94.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-back-to-the-future\">Back to the Future<\/h2>\n<p>Tolkan did several movie roles while still based in New York City, including \u201cPrince of the City\u201d (1981) for director Sidney Lumet, but moved his career to California and Canada in 1983 when he was cast in \u201cWar Games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His most memorable film roles were as Mr Strickland in \u201cBack to the Future\u201d (1985) for director Robert Zemeckis, and as Tom Cruise\u2019s CO \u201cStinger\u201d in \u201cTop Gun\u201d (1986).\u00a0 He had a dual role in Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cLove and Death,\u201d and appeared in numerous films and TV shows through 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Tributes have been pouring in for Tolkan, who died at his home in Saranac Lake, New York, his family confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of death was not given.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/celebrity-news\/val-kilmer-batman-forever-top-gun-dies-aged-65\/\" type=\"link\" id=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/lifestyle\/entertainment\/celebrity-news\/val-kilmer-batman-forever-top-gun-dies-aged-65\/\">Val Kilmer, star of \u2018Batman Forever\u2019 and \u2018Top Gun\u2019, dies aged 65<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-tributes\">Tributes<\/h3>\n<p>News of his death has sparked tributes from the entertainment industry and fans around the world, recognising his contributions to film and television over a career that spanned more than six decades.<\/p>\n<p>Lea Thompson, who plays Lorraine Baines McFly in Back to the Future, was heartbroken by Tolkan\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJames Tolkan. Oh boy I loved this man. What a kind beautiful wonderful actor and friend. He loved his work his family and his fans. We had so many good times with our #backtothefuture family. Rest in peace you were never a slacker\ud83d\udc94 You were the best,\u201d Thompson said in a Facebook post, copying Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd in the post.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-movies\">Movies<\/h3>\n<p>Fox played the part of Marty McFly, a teenage boy who goes back in time, and Lloyd, Dr Emmet Brown, a scientist who builds a time machine out of a DeLorean.<\/p>\n<p>Born James Stewart Tolkan on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Mich., the prolific actor\u2019s first screen appearance came in a guest role on the ABC-TV cop drama\u00a0Naked City\u00a0in 1960. Tolkan compiled over 80 screen credits throughout his six decades in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>The actor also appeared in several guest roles on television throughout his career, including turns in Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, The Equalizer, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Wonder Years and Leverage.<\/p>\n<p>Tolkan\u2019s last screen role came in Kurt Russell\u2019s 2015 folk horror Western Bone Tomahawk.<\/p>\n<p>The actor is survived by his wife, Parmelee Welles, whom he married in August 1971, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/Tolkan%20did%20several%20movie%20roles%20while%20still%20based%20in%20New%20York%20City,%20including%20\" prince=\"\" of=\"\" the=\"\" city=\"\" for=\"\" director=\"\" sidney=\"\" lumet=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Forbes <\/a>reported.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ALSO READ:\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.co.za\/entertainment\/celebrity-news\/james-earl-jones-darth-vader-mufasa-dies\/\">James Earl Jones: Voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa dies at 93<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p>Add The Citizen as a Preferred Source on Google and follow us on Google News to see more of our trusted reporting in Google News and Top Stories.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.citizen.co.za \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News of his death has sparked tributes from the entertainment industry and fans around the world. \u201cSlacker! You\u2019re too much like your old man. No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!\u201d These are the infamous words of James Tolkan from the iconic Back to the Future movies, who has died [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2349922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[309969,21751,345676,21741,21912,455975],"class_list":["post-2349921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-actor","tag-celebrities","tag-cinema","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-united-states-of-america-usa-us"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Back-To-The-Future-and-Top-Gun-star-James-Tolkan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2349923,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349921\/revisions\/2349923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2349922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}