James Tolkan

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 hardboiled 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 yearlong 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 highdecibel voice and an aggressive confrontational bluntasabattleax rougharoundtheedges demeanor Tolkan has been often cast as rugged cynical nononsense 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 Tolkans other most memorable roles include Napolean in Woody Allens Love and Death 1975 a ramrod army officer in WarGames 1983 mayor Robert Culps mordant wisecracking assistant in Turk 182 1985 the hardnosed 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