Fiery, forceful and intimidating character actor James Tolkan 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).
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After policeman Frank Dooley is framed for theft and loses his job on the force, he joins a security...
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When the evil Skeletor finds a mysterious power called the Cosmic Key, he becomes nearly invincible,...
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The chilling true story of the "two of a kind" killing cousins, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, be...
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Jessie is an aging career criminal who has been in more jails, fights, schemes, and lineups than jus...
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Wills is an ex-cop who pairs up with Bobby, a wacky psychic, to form the "Second Sight Detective Age...
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Marty and Doc are at it again as the time-traveling duo head to 2015 to nip some McFly family woes i...
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Teenager Ray Trueblood is wrongfully accused of murdering a police officer after his fellow gang mem...
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The final installment finds Marty digging the trusty DeLorean out of a mineshaft and looking for Doc...
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The comic strip detective finds his life vastly complicated when Breathless Mahoney makes advances t...
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Eddie and Lou are a couple of two-bit con men on the lam from a loan shark. They hide out in someone...
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Junior and his father, Ben, move from Cold River to Mortville. Junior becomes threatened by Ben's de...
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An eccentric East German inventor and defector travels to Los Angeles, California to sell a prototyp...
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Red is an aging scam-artist who's just been released from prison together with Ronnie, a young and n...
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The year is 2036 and Earth has been invaded: hope lies with the last Robo Warrior - a towering fight...
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An aging con-man and a beautiful, ambitious student cross paths in a scam that promises to make them...
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A drama centered on the relationship between Phil Spector and defense attorney Linda Kenney Baden wh...
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Recent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Back in Time (2015) | Self | 7.9 | |
| 2 | Bone Tomahawk (2015) | Pianist | 7 | |
| 3 | Phil Spector (2013) | Judge Fidler | 6 | |
| 4 | 7 Times Lucky (2004) | Dutch | - | - |
| 5 | Robo Warriors (1996) | Quon | - | - |
| 6 | Boiling Point (1993) | Levitt | 4.7 | |
| 7 | Problem Child 2 (1991) | Mr. Thron | - | - |
| 8 | Driving Me Crazy (1991) | Vince | 6.5 | |
| 9 | Back to the Future Part III (1990) | Marshal Strickland | 7.4 | |
| 10 | Dick Tracy (1990) | Numbers | 6.7 | |
| 11 | Opportunity Knocks (1990) | Sal | - | - |
| 12 | The Case of the Hillside Stranglers (1989) | Lt. Ed Henderson | - | - |
| 13 | Family Business (1989) | Judge | 6.3 | |
| 14 | Second Sight (1989) | Coolidge | 4 | |
| 15 | Back to the Future Part II (1989) | Strickland | 8 | |
| 16 | True Blood (1989) | Det. Joseph Hanley | - | - |
| 17 | Masters of the Universe (1987) | Detective Lubic | 5.1 | |
| 18 | Top Gun (1986) | Stinger | 7.2 | |
| 19 | Armed and Dangerous (1986) | Lou Brackman | 7.3 | |
| 20 | Back to the Future (1985) | Mr. Strickland | 8.4 | |
| 21 | Turk 182! (1985) | Hanley | - | - |
| 22 | Iceman (1984) | Maynard | 7.5 | |
| 23 | The River (1984) | Howard Simpson | - | - |
| 24 | WarGames (1983) | Wigan | 7.7 | |
| 25 | Author! Author! (1982) | Lt. Glass | 5 | |
| 26 | Hanky Panky (1982) | Conferee | - | - |
| 27 | Prince of the City (1981) | George Polito | - | - |
| 28 | Wolfen (1981) | Baldy | 6.7 | |
| 29 | The Amityville Horror (1979) | Coroner | 6.8 | |
| 30 | Love and Death (1975) | Napoleon | 9 | |
| 31 | The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) | The Man's contact man | 8.7 | |
| 32 | Serpico (1973) | Steiger | 7.8 | |
| 33 | They Might Be Giants (1971) | Mr. Brown | 8 |
