James Tolkan of “Back to the Future” and “Top Gun” fame has died at the age of 94.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the actor’s family announced Tolkan’s death through a spokesperson on Friday.
Tolkan “passed away peacefully in Saranac Lake, NY” on Thursday, writer-producer Bob Gale wrote on the franchise’s website.
He’s survived by his wife, Parmelee, whom he met on the 1971 off-Broadway set of “Pinkville” where James worked as an actor and Parmalee worked as a prop girl. The pair later tied the knot in Lake Placid in 1971.
Well-known for his memorable disdain for “slackers” as vice principal Mr. Strickland in the original “Back to the Future,” he appeared in the role one more time in 1989’s “Back to the Future: Part II,” and as Strickland’s grandfather in “Back to the Future Part III” in 1990.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Michigan born actor was also featured in films including “Top Gun” (1986), “The Amityville Horror” (1979), “Serpico” (1973), “WarGames” (1983), “Masters of the Universe” (1987), “True Blood” (1989) and “Opportunity Knocks” (1990), among many others.
He last appeared in the documentary “Tom Wilson: Humbly Super Famous” in 2024.
His TV credits included stints on “The Wonder Years” in 1990, the 1960 TV series “Naked City” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” (1990), among many others.
In a 2021 interview, the actor recalled being told he needed to head to New York City if he was serious about acting, while attending the University of Iowa.
“In 1956, I got on a Greyhound bus out of Iowa City, I had 75 dollars in my pocket,” he recalled to “Reality of Wrestling” at the time. “I didn’t know a soul in New York.”
Nonetheless, the determined young Tolkan went to the Big Apple “to be an actor.” It was a gamble that paid off.
“Oh my God, I didn’t know [what] I was getting into when I arrived in New York,” he divulged, noting that he was “scared to death” and that he had to “find some place to live” and that his “money ran out.”
While Tolkan admitted that being a “bus boy on Central Park South” was “challenging at first,” he also called it “the greatest time of [his] life.” “It was full of promise and possibilities,” he said.
He added elsewhere in the interview, “In some way or another, I’m a success.”
“I’ve experienced so many things positive and negative,” he said, noting that because of his early struggles getting on his feet as an actor, he was “enjoying the good life.”
“I feel strong because I made it through [it] all.”
