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Actor James Tolkan, best known for his role as Back to the Future’s principal Mr Strickland, has died at the age of 94.
The performer, who also appeared in Eighties blockbuster Top Gun, died on Friday (27 March) at his home in Lake Placid, upstate New York, Back to the Future co-creator Bob Gale told TMZ.
The news was confirmed by John Alcantar, the star’s representative for public appearances, who described Tolkan as “a beloved professional who lived a good, full life” in a statement to USA Today.
A cause of death was not given.
Tolkan appeared as Hill Valley High School’s no-nonsense teacher Strickland, who would repeatedly take protagonist Marty McFly to task for being a “slacker” in the original 1985 sci-fi movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
He went on to reprise the role in the 1989 sequel Back to the Future Part II, and would also play Strickland’s grandfather in the third movie, released in 1990.
Tolkan also starred as another authority figure in Top Gun, taking on the part of Stinger, the commanding officer who often butted heads with Tom Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.
Born in Michigan in 1931, Tolkan went on to study drama at the University of Iowa after serving in the US Navy during the Korean War.
He went on to study at the famous Actors Studio in New York, where he learned from the influential acting teachers Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg.
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This marked the start of several decades working in the city’s theatre scene, including a stint as part of the original ensemble cast of Glengarry Glen Ross, David Mamet’s Pulitzer Prize winning play.
He went on to appear in films such as crime drama Serpico and legal thriller Prince of the City, both directed by Sidney Lumet, as well as sci-fi movie WarGames and Woody Allen’s Love and Death, in which he played Napoleon.
He is survived by Parmelee, his wife of 54 years.
