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Associated Press Reporters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nPress Association<\/small><\/div>\n
Today at 18:32<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Actor James Tolkan, best known for playing authoritarian figures in the 1980s classics Back To The Future and Top Gun, has died aged 94.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Tolkan died on Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, according to his booking agent.<\/p>\n
A brief obituary published on the Back To The Future website said Tolkan died \u201cpeacefully\u201d, but no cause of death was given.<\/p>\n
In the time-travelling adventure Back To The Future, Tolkan portrayed the bow tie-wearing vice principal Gerald Strickland, who eyeballed pupils in the halls of the fictitious Hill Valley High School \u2013 in particular Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox.<\/p>\n
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\nArguably Tolkan\u2019s best-known role was as Principal Strickland in Back To The Future (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou got a real attitude problem, McFly,\u201d Tolkan\u2019s character says in the 1985 film. \u201cYou\u2019re a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tolkan also appeared in Top Gun as commanding officer Tom \u201cStinger\u201d Jardian.<\/p>\n
Near the end of the film, when Jardian asks Tom Cruise\u2019s character, Capt Pete \u201cMaverick\u201d Mitchell, about his choice for future duty, Mitchell replies that he wants to be a Top Gun instructor.<\/p>\n
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\nJames Tolkan was best known for playing authoritarian figures (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cGod help us,\u201d Tolkan\u2019s character replies, laughing.<\/p>\n
Born in Calumet, Michigan, Tolkan served in the US navy during the Korean War and eventually made his way to New York, where he spent a quarter of a century acting in theatre roles. He was a member of the original ensemble cast of Glengarry Glen Ross.<\/p>\n
Tolkan also appeared in the 1987 big screen version of Masters Of The Universe as another authoritarian figure, Detective Lubic, who helps He-Man take on the forces of Skeletor in modern-day California. He also had a role in the cinema version of Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty, in 1990.<\/p>\n
Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.independent.ie \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Tolkan has died aged 94 (Alamy\/PA) Associated Press Reporters Press Association Today at 18:32 Actor James Tolkan, best known for playing authoritarian figures in the 1980s classics Back To The Future and Top Gun, has died aged 94. Tolkan died on Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, according to his booking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2350338,"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":[25177],"tags":[347605],"class_list":["post-2350337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-latest-news-ticker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Top-Gun-and-Back-To-The-Future-actor-James-Tolkan.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350337","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=2350337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2350339,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2350337\/revisions\/2350339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2350338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2350337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2350337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2350337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}