1931-06-20 ( 93 years old ) in Calumet, Michigan, USA
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).
Movies
Val
2021-07-23
Bone Tomahawk
2015-10-23
Back in Time
2015-10-20
Phil Spector
2013-06-14
Tales from the Future
2010-10-26
Looking Back to the Future
2009-02-10
Heavens Fall
2006-07-20
7 Times Lucky
2004-01-17
Love in Ambush
1997-02-28
Robo Warriors
1997-01-15
Underworld
1996-06-01
Sketch Artist II: Hands That See
1995-01-28
Boiling Point
1993-04-16
Bloodfist IV: Die Trying
1992-11-18
Sketch Artist
1992-04-26
Problem Child 2
1991-07-03
Driving Me Crazy
1991-05-16
Hangfire
1991-01-11
Back to the Future Part III
1990-05-25
Sunset Beat
1990-04-21
Dick Tracy
1990-04-05
Opportunity Knocks
1990-03-30
Family Business
1989-12-06
Back to the Future Part II
1989-11-22
Second Sight
1989-11-03
Ministry of Vengeance
1989-11-03
True Blood
1989-04-28
The Case of the Hillside Stranglers
1989-04-02
Question of Faith
1988-10-06
Split Decisions
1988-06-11
Weekend War
1988-02-01
Viper
1988-01-01
Made in Heaven
1987-11-06
Masters of the Universe
1987-08-07
Little Spies
1986-10-05
Armed and Dangerous
1986-08-15
Top Gun
1986-05-16
Off Beat
1986-04-10
Flanagan
1985-10-30
Back to the Future
1985-07-03
Turk 182!
1985-02-15
The River
1984-12-01
Iceman
1984-04-13
WarGames
1983-06-03
Wings
1983-04-26
Author! Author!
1982-06-18
Hanky Panky
1982-06-04
Prince of the City
1981-08-19
Wolfen
1981-07-24
The Amityville Horror
1979-07-27
Independence
1976-07-04
Love and Death
1975-06-10
Serpico
1973-12-18
The Werewolf of Washington
1973-10-01
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1973-06-26
They Might Be Giants
1971-06-09
Stiletto
1969-07-30
The Three Sisters
1966-01-01
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