Read more: James Tolkan, the character actor who expressed a disdain for “slackers” in the Back to the Future trilogy and portrayed Tom Cruise’s no-nonsense commanding officer in Top Gun, passed away. He was 94. Here’s an interesting post from https://reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/1s5kanx/james_tolkan_the_character_actor_who_expressed_a/: Continue here: James Tolkan, the character actor who expressed a disdain for “slackers” in the Back to the Future trilogy and portrayed Tom Cruise’s no-nonsense commanding officer in Top Gun, passed away. He was 94.