James Tolkan

ACTOR, DIRECTOR

James Tolkan Movies or Tv Shows (upto Mar 2024) - Watch Online

29th May 2022 | FlixCatalog Staff

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).James has had recurring parts on the television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001) (he also directed two episodes), Mary (1985), Cobra (1993), The Hat Squad (1992) and Remington Steele (1982). Among the television series James has done guest spots on are Naked City (1958), Hill Street Blues (1981), Miami Vice (1984), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), The Equalizer (1985), The Wonder Years (1988) and The Pretender (1996). Besides his film and television work, Tolkan has also performed on stage in productions of such plays as "Between Two Thieves", "Wings", "One Tennis Shoe", "The Front Page", "Twelve Angry Men", "Full Circle", "The Tempest", "Golda", "The Silent Partner" and the original 1984 Broadway production of David Mamet's "Glengary, Glen Ross". When he isn't acting, James Tolkan spends his spare time collecting folk art. - IMDb Mini Biography By: woodyanders

Fan Zone

Streaming Availability

Apple iTunes has the most number of James Tolkan’s flixes, followed by Amazon Video compared to other streaming platforms. See the full graph below.

Releases by Year

James Tolkan on average has worked on 1 movies per year from 1975 to 2021. See the full graphs of the number of James Tolkan movies released per year from 1985 till 2021.

Top Genres

James Tolkan works mostly in Action Genre followed by Drama Genre flixes. 30% of James Tolkan movies are Action Genre movies. See Top Genres that James Tolkan worked on in the graph below.

Average IMDB Score

On average the IMDB score of the movies that James Tolkan has worked on is 6.3.

6.3 / 10

James Tolkan's Movies and Tv Series available to Stream now ..

Action,Adventure,Comedy
Remington Steele (1982)

The cases of a female private detective partnered with a former thief who assumes the role of a fictitious detective in the business.

7.2/1060 min

Available in 2 platform(s).

In Mary, this time Moore is a forty something divorcee, Mary Brenner, working at a seedy tabloid, the Chicago Eagle. After being a writer at a fashion magazine that went out of business, ...

7.1/1030 min

Available in 2 platform(s).

Action,Drama
True Blood (1989)

Ray Trueblood, member of a street gang, is framed by an enemy of a rival gang, Billy "Spider" Masters. Ray is accused of killing a cop and he has to escape leaving behind his little brother...

5/10100 min

Available in 3 platform(s).