Tokofsky began his connection with the film business as an agent, and by the 1960s had become a studio executive at
Columbia Pictures. In 1966, he was a vice-president of Columbia. He then produced films for the studio. In 1967,
Mike Frankovich assigned the review of Ford's contract with Columbia to Tokofsky, and he terminated it, By 1968, Tokofsky had become head of Columbia's creative affairs department, which had the tasks of evaluating scripts and overseeing actors, directors, and producers. He took on
Peter Guber as his assistant and later spoke warmly of Guber's usefulness to him. By the early 1970s, Tokofsky was producing films for
United Artists and others. In 1986, at the suggestion of
Irvin Kershner, Tokofsky and Stanley Zupnik paid
David Mamet one million dollars for the film rights to his award-winning play
Glengarry Glen Ross, but it took them several years to raise the money to make
the film, as no major studio would touch it. ==Personal life and death==