JAMES STRICKLAND, UNITED STATES MARSHAL (James Tolkan), in Back to the Future Part III , is the town marshal of Hill Valley, California in 1885. His role in the multiple changes of the timestream never changes: he is the law in Hill Valley.In the original timeline, he has no more than the usual trouble with Buford Tannen, a local gang leader. In a second timeline, Buford Tannen murders a stranger named Emmett L. Doc Brown, who sets up shop as a blacksmith. But in yet a third, a young stranger calling himself Clint Eastwood prevents the murder of Doc Brown, and fights his own gun battle with Tannen--incredibly, preparing to go into battle with a stove lid, which he then uses to subdue Tannen long enough for Marshal Strickland to arrest Tannen for robbing the Pine Street stagecoach.Also in the original timeline, Clara Clayton will die when her horses run away with her and carry her over the edge of the Shonash Ravine, which will be named the Clayton Ravine ever after. In the second, Doc Brown will save her from that death, only to die himself, as above. In the third, Doc Brown will save her as before--but will also, unaccountably, hijack a steam locomotive and run it into the Shonash Ravine. That will be connected with (as Strickland thinks) the death of the young Clint Eastwood, prompting the renaming of the ravine to the Eastwood Ravine forever after. Strickland does not bring him to trial, mainly because the holdup and engine theft are out of his jurisdiction, and the Central Pacific's railroad detectives have no reliable witnesses. Eventually Doc Brown will buy another steam locomotive, outfit it with all sorts of newfangled gadgets, and, with Clara Clayton to accompany him, will drive it toward the Eastwood Ravine and vanish into thin air, never to be seen again.James Strickland's grandson Samuel will eventually become a teacher, then the Principal of the Hill Valley High School. Show less «