Thomas F. Wilson

Thomas F. Wilson
Tom Wilson at Helium Comedy Club in Portland, Oregon on July 16, 2011
Born	Thomas Francis Wilson, Jr. (1959-04-15) April 15, 1959 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Other names	Tom Wilson
Occupation	Actor, comedian, voice actor, writer, musician, painter
Years active	1983–present
Spouse(s)	Caroline Thomas (m. 1985) 4 children

Thomas Francis Wilson Jr. (born April 15, 1959) is an American actor, writer, musician, painter, voice-over artist, stand-up comedian, and podcaster. He is best known for playing Biff Tannen (and his grandson Griff Tannen and great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen) in the Back to the Future trilogy, a supporting role in April Fools Day and Coach Ben Fredricks on NBC's Freaks and Geeks.

Early life

Thomas Francis Wilson, Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in nearby Wayne, Pennsylvania. While attending Radnor High School, he was involved in dramatic arts, was president of the debate team where his partner was future NY Times columnist David Brooks, and played tuba in the high school band and was drum major of his marching band. He studied international politics at Arizona State University. Wilson's first 'real' stage experience was as a stand-up comedian while studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is a contributor to The Bob & Tom Show and is part of their comedy tour.

1980s

Wilson had a small role in an episode of NBC's Knight Rider in 1984. His breakthrough role was as a bully named Biff Tannen in the movie Back to the Future. Wilson's talents as a comedian and an actor combined made Biff a character people loved to hate. When Back to the Future became a trilogy, he was asked to perform in these sequels again as Biff's grandson Griff and Biff's great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. His famous catchphrases include "Hello! Hello, McFly! Anybody home?", "What are you looking at, Butthead?", "Say hi to your mom for me", "Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here". In every Back to the Future film, he always ended up in a pile of manure—in each instance, Wilson's Tannen characters were always 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 franchise's animated series. Wilson also played the role of a Detroit police officer in Action Jackson.

1990s

In 1992, he voiced gangster Tony Zucco in Batman: The Animated Series and police detective Matt Bluestone in the animated series Gargoyles. He later went to co-star in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger, a video game with Mark Hamill. It was the third chapter in the Wing Commander series, but the first to feature live action and was extremely popular at the time. The character played by Wilson was Major Todd "Maniac" Marshall, a fellow starfighter pilot of Hamill's character. Wilson also 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 also guest starred in an episode of Lois and 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. Coach Fredricks dated Bill Haverchuck's mother. Wilson was briefly reunited with his Back to the Future co-star Christopher Lloyd in the 1994 film Camp Nowhere.

Wilson also played as Simon, Hilda's dream date made out of dough in Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1996.

2000s

In 2003, Wilson appeared on the screen in a mockumentary movie called Trial and Error: The Making of Sequestered. Wilson has often lent his voice to animated productions such as Batman: The Animated Series (1993), The New Batman Adventures (1998), Disney's Atlantis: Milo's Return (2003), and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004). As well as the animated roles, he has continued to voice characters in computer and video games. His latest roles are supporting characters in the film Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and on the TV drama Ghost Whisperer.

In 2004, Wilson played the role of Noah Curry in the Pasadena Playhouse production of the musical 110 in the Shade, also starring Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley. In 2005, Wilson released his comedy album, Tom Wilson Is Funny!.

In 2007, Wilson appeared in the episode "Whatever It Takes" of the Fox drama, House M.D., as "Lou", the father of Dr. House's patient.

In 2008, Wilson appeared in the episode "The Baby in the Bough" of another Fox drama, Bones. He played Chip Barnett, owner of a tire recycling plant.

Wilson appeared in an episode of the ABC drama Boston Legal (Season 4, Episode 7), "Attack of the Xenophobes", as a former police officer who is charged with murder.

Wilson performed "Sleigh Ride" with Relient K on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, playing acoustic guitar. The members of Relient K are big fans of Wilson and invited him to perform on the show with them.

In March 2009, he appeared as himself, busking, in Vidiotic, a comedy pilot on the British channel BBC Three.

He hosts a podcast, Big Pop Fun, on the Nerdist Network starting in November 2011. The podcast features Tom sharing stories of his career, as well as informal chats with showbusiness friends including Samm Levine, Blake Clark, Steve Oedekerk, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and more.

Personal life

Wilson is a painter. Many of his paintings focus on old-time children's toys. In 2006, he was selected to join the California Featured Artist Series at Disneyland.

Wilson is a Catholic, and released a Contemporary Christian album in 2000 called In the Name of the Father.

With the rise in popularity of the Back to the Future series, many people began to ask him questions about his experiences making the films. Wilson found the repetitive nature of the questions to be so amusing--and annoying--that he wrote a song about them entitled "Biff's Question Song" which he now features regularly in his stand-up routine.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1985	L.A. Streetfighters	Member of Spike's Gang
1985	Back to the Future	Biff Tannen
1986	April Fool's Day	Arch Cummings
1986	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
1990	Back to the Future Part III	Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen Biff Tannen	Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
1991	High Strung	Al Dalby
1992	Boris and Natasha: The Movie	Additional Voices	Voice
1993	Blood In Blood Out	Det. Rollie
1994	Mr. Write	Billy
1994	Camp Nowhere	Lt. Eliot Hendricks
1994	Caroline at Midnight	Officer Keaton
1995	Born to Be Wild	Det. Lou Greenburg
1997	That Darn Cat	Officer Melvin
1998	Girl	The Ticket Seller
2003	Atlantis: Milo's Return	Ashton Carnaby	Voice Direct-to-video
2004	The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie	Victor Fish #3 Tough Fish #1	Voice
2006	Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector	Bart Tatlock
2006	Zoom	Dylan's Teacher
2009	House Broken	Fire Chief Henry Decker
2009	The Informant!	Mark Cheviron
2011	Rio	Trapped Bird Screaming Hang Gilder	Voice
2012	Atlas Shrugged: Part II	Robert Collins
2013	The Heat	Captain Frank Woods	Post-Production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	Knight Rider	Chip	Episode: "A Knight in Shining Armor"
1984	The Facts of Life	Moose	Episode: "All or Nothing"
1990	Turner & Hooch	Det. Scott Turner	Failed pilot
1991-1992	Back to the Future: The Animated Series	Biff Tannen	Voice
1993	The Pink Panther	Additional Voices	Voice
1993	Batman: The Animated Series	Tony Zucco John Grayson	Voice Episode: "Robin's Reckoning: Part 1", "Robin's Reckoning: Part 2"
1995-1996	Gargoyles	Matt Bluestone	Voice
1996	Superman: The Animated Series	Joey	Voice Episode: "A Little Piece of Home"
1996	Wing Commander Academy	Todd 'Maniac' Marshall	Voice
1996	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Simon	Episode: "Dream Date"
1996	Andersonville	Thomas Sweet	TV Movie
1997	Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman	Carter Landry	Episode: "Lethal Weapon"
1997	Duckman	Park Ranger Smith	Voice Episode: "Short, Plush and Deadly"
1997	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	Marty	Voice Episode: "Clockwise/Gromble Soup", "Showdown/Internal Affairs"
1997	steve.oedekerk.com	Costumer Talk Show Host	TV Movie
1997	Fired Up	Steve Summer
1998	Pinky and the Brain	Larry Bruhn	Voice Episode: "Dangerous Brains"
1998	Men in White	Ed Klingbottom	TV Movie
1998	The New Batman Adventures	Howlin' Jake Gotham Angels Biker	Voice Episode: "Torch Song"
1998	Zoomates	Mark the Polar Bear	Voice TV Short
1998	Maggie	Hank	Episode: "Just Shoot Him", "Every Little Star"
1998	The Angry Beavers	Ottis Otto Bowling Patron	Voice Episode: "If You Insisters/Alley Oops!"
1999	The Hughleys	Stan	Episode: "Why Can't We Be Friends?"
1999-2000	Freaks and Geeks	Coach Ben Fredricks
1999	Pepper Ann	Coach Bronson	Voice Episode: "Beyond Good and Evel/One of the Guys"
2000-2001	Max Steel	Pete Costas	Voice Episode: "Strangers", "The Return"
2000	Buzz Lightyear of Star Command	Buster	Voice Episode: "Root of Evil"
2001	Nash Bridges	Jack Noon	Episode: "Bear Trap"
2001	The Zeta Project	Burly Boyfriend	Voice Episode: "West Bound"
2001-present	SpongeBob SquarePants	Flats the Flounder Reg Tattletale Strangler Tony Fast Sr. additional voices	Voice
2001	Titus	Joe	Episode: "Amy's Birthday"
2002-2003	Do Over	Coach Dorsey	Episodes: "Pilot", "Joel Strikes Back", "Take Me out of the Ballgame", "Valentine's Day Dance", "Chilghetti"
2002	She Spies	Roger 'Rush' Gibson	Episode: "Fondles"
2003	Ed	Sean Nowell	Episodes: "Hyenas & Wildebeests", "The Case", "Good Advice", "Death, Debt & Dating", "Goodbye Stuckeyville"
2003	The Pitts	Guard	Episode: "Ticket to Riot"
2003	Boston Public	Paul Stanton	Episode: "Chapter Sixty-Six"
2003	Striperella	Additional Voices	Voice Episodes: "Beauty and the Obese: Part 1", "Beauty and the Obese: Part 2", "The Wrath of Klinko"
2003	Two And A Half Men	Mike	Episode: "Pilot"
2004	The Mullets	Lyle Turner	Episode: "Losin' It"
2004	Rock Me Baby	Buffalo Buck	Episode: "Go, Otis! It's Your Birthday!"
2005	Rodney	Bill	Episode: "Sorry Charlie"
2005	Zoey 101	Coach Phelps	Episode: "Disc Golf"
2005	Higglytown Heroes	Truck Driver	Voice Episode: "Kip's Dad Gets a Strike"
2005	Reba	Ted	Episode: "Reba and the One"
2005	George Lopez	Sonny	Episode: "George Drives the Batmobile"
2006	Help Me Help You	Kenny	Episode: "Pilot", "Sasha's Birthday BBQ", "Working Women", "Boxer"
2006	Still Standing	Coach Kirk Stone	Episode: "Still Flunking"
2006	Cold Case	Arnold Brown	Episode: "Superstar"
2006-2008	Ghost Whisperer	Tim Flaherty	Episodes: "The Woman of His Dreams", "Deja Boo", "The Walk-in", "Delia's First Ghost", "The Prophet", "Threshold"
2007	American Body Shop	Juicy Lou	Episode: "Juicy Lou's", "Shop for Sale"
2007	House	Lou	Episode: "Whatever It Takes"
2007	Boston Legal	Jeffrey Bass	Episode: "Attack of the Xenophobes"
2008	The Spectacular Spider-Man	Stan Carter	Voice Episodes: "Interactions", "Competition", "Persona", "Shear Strength", "Growing Pains", "Probable Cause"
2008	Bones	Chip Barnett	Episode: "The Baby in the Bough"
2008	Back at the Barnyard	Krebs	Voice Episode: "Brave Udders"
2008-2009	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Sportsmaster Catman	Voice Episode: "Invasion of the Secret Santas!", "Legends of the Dark Mite!"
2009	Psych	Butch	Episode: "Let's Get Hairy"
2009	Family Guy	Additional voices	Voice Episode: "Quagmire's Baby"
2010-2011	Big Love	Ricky Jax	Episode: "The Mighty and Strong", "Blood Atonement", "The Oath"
2010	Adventure Time	Head Marauder	Voice Episodes: "Memories of Boom Boom Mountain", "It Came from the Nightosphere"
2010	True Jackson, VP	Ben Franklin	Episode: "Field Trip"
2011	Harry's Law	Allan Meade	Episode: "Bangers in the House"
2011	Billion Dollar Freshmen	Principal Preston	TV Movie
2011	Planet Sheen	Narrator Blurg #1	Voice Episodes: "Ooze on First/Monster-Fighting Combat Strike Force", "To Chill a Mocking Blurg/Now You Sheen It"
2011-2012	Franklin & Bash	Spiritual Advisor	Episode: "She Came Upstairs to Kill Me", "For Those About to Rock"
2011	Melissa & Joey	Councilman Herbert Hancock	Episode: "Play Ball"
2012-Present	Dragons: Riders of Berk	Bucket	Voice
2013-Present	Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous	Mr. Stone	Main role

Video Games

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger	Todd "Maniac" Marshall
1996	Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom	Todd "Maniac" Marshall
1997	Wing Commander: Prophecy	Todd "Maniac" Marshall
2000	Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force	Crewman Rick Biessman	Voice
2001	Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex	Rok-Ko the Earth Elemental	Voice
2002	Run Like Hell: Hunt or Be Hunted	Craig	Voice
2010	Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Videogame	Catman	Voice
2010	Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions	Electro	Voice
2011	Star Wars: The Old Republic	Additional Voices	Voice

External links

• Official website
• Tom Wilson's Big Pop Fun
• Official blog
• Thomas F. Wilson on Twitter
• Thomas F. Wilson on Facebook
• Thomas F. Wilson on Myspace
• Thomas F. Wilson at the Internet Movie Database
• Thomas F. Wilson at AllRovi
• Interview with Tom Wilson at Scene Missing Magazine