He had roles in such films as Top Gun, WarGames, Hanky Panky, The Amityville Horror, and Serpico– but I know James Tolkan best for his roles in all three Back to the Future films. He was the hard-headed Principal Strickland at Hill Valley in the first two entries of the series and played his own grandfather Sheriff Strickland in the third film. Most notable was how he referred to many of the cast members as Slackers!
Tolkan noted that he would have never made it as a real principal – since he didn’t know how to spell it!
He was a very nice guy when I met him at the Chicago Hollywood Celebrity Show on Saturday, October 17, 2009. I plunked down the 20 bucks for the signed photo from Back to the Future, and hesitantly paid another 5 bucks to get a picture with him. He made it well worth my while. After getting the standard smiling pose with him, I asked him if he would get into his hard-nosed character and address me as a slacker too!
He gladly did this and after about 30 seconds of waiting for Mom to take a picture of the momentous occasion, we both looked over to see her staring off into space and then asking me “was I supposed to be taking a picture of that?”
Classic.
“Who is the slacker that’s supposed to be taking this picture??”
So he kept it up for a few more seconds in order to get the picture at the top of the posting. We chatted a bit longer and he said that there might be a Back to the Future reunion at the next Chicago show, similar to what they had done in Burbank (and had actually gotten Michael J. Fox to show up, in addition to Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson). Only a true slacker would miss something like that!
Celebrities of the Chicago show will continue…
Remember that great ass-chewing he laid on Maverick and Goose at the beginning of Top Gun? Maybe the best scene in the movie.
Eric Hubble
February 1st, 2010
Stumbled across this looking for a photo of Strickland (a friend of mine is slacking today). Funny story here, and great pics.
Michael Romano
September 21st, 2016