James Tolkan, the Top Gun actor, is no more, confirms a note on the Back to the Future franchise’s website. It has been revealed that the star was in Saranac Lake, N.Y., when he passed away on Thursday, March 26. It was announced by his family’s spokesperson as well as by writer-producer Bob Gale. He is said to have passed peacefully at the age of 94.
With an acting career spanning over five decades, Tolkan was loved by plenty of people. His journey was shared via a note from his family, and read about how he was originally born in Michigan in 1931 but ended up cycling “through Chicago after his parents divorced and wound up in Tucson, Arizona, where he graduated [from] Amphitheater High School in 1949.”
About James Tolkan
Spending 25 years in New York theater, including his Broadway debut, he was seen in impressive roles. Including those in Serpico alongside Al Pacino in 1973, in Prince of the City in 1981, and as a judge in Family Business in 1989. He played Napoleon and his look-alike in Woody Allen’s Love and Death, as Numbers in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy, and many more.
However, his most remarkable acting contribution to date has to be in Back to the Future in 1985, where he played Mr. Strickland, the strict high school vice principal. He returned to reprise his role in the follow-up projects of the film. Another one of his well-known roles is that of CO Stinger (Commander Tom Jardian) in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun.
James Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee, whom he met on the set of the Broadway play Pinkville in 1971, and three nieces in Des Moines, Iowa. Honoring the great actor, they have asked for donations to local animal rescue spots and shelters in his memory.