Thomas F. Wilson

Thomas Francis Wilson Jr. (born April 15, 1959) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, musician, podcaster, and YouTuber. He is best known for playing Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen, and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen in the Back to the Future film trilogy (1985–1990). He played coach Ben Fredricks in the comedy series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and voices various characters, mainly villains, like The Tattletale Strangler on the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants (2001–present). He also voices Cecil Star, the father of Patrick Star, in the SpongeBob spinoff The Patrick Star Show.

Early life Thomas Francis Wilson Jr. was born in Philadelphia on April 15, 1959, and grew up in nearby Wayne. While attending Radnor High School, he was involved in dramatic arts, served as president of the debate team (where his partner was future New York Times columnist David Brooks), played the tuba in the high school band, and was the drum major of the school marching band. He studied international politics at Arizona State University and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. In 1979, he got his first significant stage experience as a comedian. He shared an apartment with fellow aspiring comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Yakov Smirnoff, and later joked that he "taught them both about America". He had a small role in the second season of NBC's Knight Rider in an episode titled "A Knight In Shining Armor".

Wilson's breakthrough role was as the bully Biff Tannen in the 1985 film Back to the Future. He returned in the sequels Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III, reprising his role as Biff, and as Biff's grandson Griff Tannen and great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. In each Back to the Future film, his character ends up in a pile of manure after trying to kill or hurt Michael J. Fox's character Marty McFly. He reprised his role as Biff and voiced various Tannen relatives in the animated series.

Wilson did not reprise his role as Biff in the initial versions of Telltale's Back to the Future: The Game released in 2011, being replaced by Kid Beyond. When the game was ported to the PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One in 2015 in commemoration of the original film's 30th anniversary, Wilson returned to provide Biff's voice in these newer versions. Wilson found the car scene in the first Back to the Future, in which he molests Lea Thompson's character, Lorraine the most difficult scene he shot. In between takes Wilson whispered to Thompson "I'm so sorry, Lea." to which Thompson replied with "It's just acting, Tom."

In 1992, he voiced gangster Tony Zucco in Batman: The Animated Series and police detective Matt Bluestone in the animated series Gargoyles. In 1994, Wilson was briefly reunited with his Back to the Future co-star Christopher Lloyd in the film Camp Nowhere. He later went to co-star with Mark Hamill in the video game Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. It was the third chapter in the Wing Commander series, but the first to feature live action. The character played by Wilson was Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall, a fellow starfighter pilot to Hamill's character. Wilson starred in the sequels Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1995) and Wing Commander: Prophecy (1997) and contributed his voice to the animated series Wing Commander Academy (1996) in the same role. He guest starred in an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in 1997.

Wilson played McKinley High School's Coach Ben Fredricks in the 1999–2000 NBC comedy drama Freaks and Geeks.

Wilson has done voice-over work for the Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He has voiced many villainous characters that are physically strong and menacing, such as Flats the Flounder in the third-season episode "The Bully", The Tattletale Strangler in "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler", and the non-villainous character Reg the Club Bouncer in "No Weenies Allowed". In 2005, he played Coach Phelps in the TV series Zoey 101.

In 2009, he released his first stand-up comedy special and second comedy album, Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You.

According to a 2012 Gawker article, the rise in popularity of the Back to the Future series led many people to repeatedly ask Wilson questions about the films and his co-stars. Because he found the repetitive nature of the questions to be both amusing and frustrating, he wrote a song about them titled "Biff's Question Song" which he includes in his stand-up routine. He hosted a podcast, Big Pop Fun, on the Nerdist Network from 2011 to 2014. The podcast featured Wilson sharing stories of his career, as well as informal chats with show business friends including Samm Levine, Blake Clark, Steve Oedekerk and "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Wilson maintains a YouTube channel, where he regularly vlogs. As of April 2025, his channel has over 44,400 subscribers.

Personal life Wilson married Caroline Thomas on July 6, 1985, exactly three days after Back to the Future was released. They have four children, and live in Los Angeles, California.

Wilson is a devout Catholic and released a contemporary Christian album in 2000 called In the Name of the Father. He is a painter in his spare time, and many of his paintings focus on classic children's toys. In 2006, he was selected to join the California Featured Artist Series at Disneyland.

Filmography Comedy specials Year Title Role Notes 2009 Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You Himself Stand-up specialAlso executive producer

Film Year Title Role Notes1985 Ninja Turf Member of Spike's Gang Back to the Future Biff Tannen1986 April Fool's Day Arch Cummings Let's Get Harry Bob Pachowski 1987 Smart Alex Lieutenant Stevenson 1988 Action Jackson Officer Kornblau 1989 Back to the Future Part II Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen, Gertrude Tannen 1990 Back to the Future Part III Buford "Mad-Dog" Tannen, Biff Tannen Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor 1992 High Strung Al Dalby 1993 Blood In Blood Out Det. Rollie McCann1994 Caroline at Midnight Officer Keaton Mr. Write Billy Camp Nowhere Lt. Eliot Hendricks 1995 Born to Be Wild Det. Lou Greenburg 1997 That Darn Cat Officer Melvin 1998 Girl The Ticket Seller 2003 Atlantis: Milo's Return Ashtin Carnaby Voice, direct-to-video 2004 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie VictorVoice

Television Year Title Role Notes 1984 Knight Rider Chip Episode: "A Knight in Shining Armor" The Facts of Life Moose Episode: "All or Nothing" 1990 Turner & Hooch Det. Scott Turner Pilot 1991–1992 Back to the Future Biff Tannen, additional voices Voice, 26 episodes 1992 Batman: The Animated Series Tony Zucco Voice, episode: "Robin's Reckoning" 2019 SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout Dog walker/Himself Television special The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants Major Messy/Camoflush Voice, episode: "Captain Underpants and the Cunning Combat of the Covert Camoflush" 2020–2021 Sydney to the Max Grandpa Doug 3 episodes2020 Wizards: Tales of Arcadia Coach Laurence Voice, episode: "Wizard Underground" 2020 NCIS Angus DeMint Episode: "Blood and Treasure" 2021–present The Patrick Star Show Cecil Star Voice, main cast 2022 Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years Cecil Star Voice, episode: "Help Not Wanted"

Video games Year Title Role Notes 1994 Wing Commander III: Heart of the TigerMaj. Todd "Maniac" MarshallCredited as Tom Wilson 1996 Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom 1997 Wing Commander: Prophecy 2000 Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force Crewman Kendrick "Rick" Biessman 2001 Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex Rok-Ko Credited as Tom Wilson 2002 Run Like Hell: Hunt or Be Hunted Craig 2010 Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Electro 2011 Star Wars: The Old Republic Additional voices

Theme parks Year Title Role Notes 1991 Back to the Future: The Ride Biff Tannen

Discography Tom Wilson is Funny! (2005) Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You (2009)

Crew work Year Title Position Notes 1989 The Last Ride Writer Short film 1996 Get Serious: Seven Deadly Subs Writer, producer 6 episodes

Books Self published.