Prolific, bald, blue-eyed character player of stage, film and TV with a crisp, precise delivery who convinces playing tough but honest cops and hard-ass authority figures. Though familiar to TV viewers from numerous guest shots ("The Wonder Years", "Hill Street Blues"), recurring roles ("Remington Steele") and stints as a regular on various short-lived series ("Mary", "The Hat Squad"), Tolkan may be best known for his relatively small supporting roles in two of the biggest blockbusters of 1980s Hollywood. In "Top Gun" (1986), he was the no-nonsense aircraft carrier commander who chastises Tom Cruise with a classic proclamation--"Maverick, your ego's writing checks your body can't cash!"--that was lifted word-for-word for parodistic purposes in the spoof "Hot Shots!" (1991). Tolkan proved so memorably formidable as the Vice Principal Strickland in Robert Zemeckis' "Back to the Future" (1985) that he came back to reprise the role for the sequel "Back to the Future II" (1989) and did a cameo as Marshal Strickland for the Western-themed "Back to the Future III" (1990).

A student of both Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg, Tolkan went on to numerous productions on and off Broadway as well as working on the London stage.