
James Tolkan
Biography
Fiery, forceful and intimidating character actor James Tolkan has carved out a nice little niche for himself in both movies and television alike as a formidable portrayer of fierce and flinty hard-boiled tough guy types. James Stewart Tolkan was born on June 20, 1931 in Calumet, Michigan. His father, Ralph M. Tolkan, was a cattle dealer. James attended the University of Iowa, Coe College and Eastern Arizona College. After serving a year-long stint in the United States Navy, Tolkan went to New York and studied acting with both Lee Strasberg and Stella Adler at the Actors Studio. Short and bald, with beady, intense eyes, a wiry, compact, muscular build, a gruff, jarring, high-decibel voice, and an aggressive, confrontational, blunt-as-a-battle-ax, rough-around-the-edges demeanor, Tolkan has been often cast as rugged, cynical no-nonsense cops, mean, domineering authority figures, and various ruthless and dangerous criminals.
Tolkan first began acting in movies in the late 1960s and was highly effective in two pictures for Sidney Lumet: He was a rabidly homophobic police lieutenant in the superbly gritty Serpico (1973) and a sneaky district attorney in the equally excellent Prince of the City (1981). Best known as the obnoxiously overzealous high school principal Gerard Strickland in the Back to the Future films, Tolkan's other most memorable roles include Napolean in Woody Allen's Love and Death (1975), a ramrod army officer in WarGames (1983), mayor Robert Culp's mordant, wisecracking assistant in Turk 182 (1985), the hard-nosed Stinger in Top Gun (1986), the choleric Detective Lubric in Masters of the Universe (1987), meek mob accountant Numbers in Dick Tracy (1990), and Wesley Snipes' bullish superior in Boiling Point (1993).
Acting (57 movies)

Back to the Future
1985

Back to the Future Part II
1989

Back to the Future Part III
1990

WarGames
1983

Top Gun
1986

Family Business
1989

Boiling Point
1993

Opportunity Knocks
1990

Masters of the Universe
1987

Iceman
1984

Made in Heaven
1987

Heavens Fall
2006

Problem Child 2
1991

Off Beat
1986

7 Times Lucky
2004

Bloodfist IV: Die Trying
1992

Little Spies
1986

Split Decisions
1988

True Blood
1989

Phil Spector
2013

Looking Back to the Future
2009

The Case of the Hillside Stranglers
1989

Love and Death
1975

They Might Be Giants
1971

Hangfire
1991

The Amityville Horror
1979

Armed and Dangerous
1986

Robo Warriors
1996

Turk 182!
1985

Second Sight
1989

Weekend War
1988

Serpico
1973

Driving Me Crazy
1991

Prince of the City
1981

Viper
1988

The River
1984

Sketch Artist II: Hands That See
1995

Bone Tomahawk
2015

Underworld
1996

Hanky Panky
1982

Dick Tracy
1990

Back in Time
2015

Ministry of Vengeance
1989

Flanagan
1985

The Three Sisters
1966

Tales from the Future
2010

Wolfen
1981

The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1973

Question of Faith
1988

Author! Author!
1982

Sketch Artist
1992

Stiletto
1969

The Werewolf of Washington
1973

Wings
1983

Love in Ambush
1997

Independence
1976

Guns: A Day in the Death of America
1990
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