Thomas F. Wilson

**Thomas Francis Wilson Jr .** (born April 15, 1959) is an American actor, painter, musician, comedian, voice actor and podcaster best known for playing Biff Tannen, Griff Tannen and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen in the *Back to the Future* trilogyand Coach Ben Fredricks on NBC's *Freaks and Geeks*. He is also known for his voice-over work in movies, TV shows and video games. In the early 1980s, Wilson moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career.[*citation needed*] He shared an apartment with fellow aspiring comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Yakov Smirnoff, and later joked that he "taught them both about America."[2]

Wilson had a small role in the second season of NBC's *Knight Rider* in an episode titled "A Knight In Shining Armor".

His breakthrough role was the bully Biff Tannen in the 1985 film *Back to the Future*. He returned in the sequels *Back to the Future Part II* and *Part III* to not only reprise his role as Biff, but to also play Biff's grandson Griff Tannen and great-grandfather Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. In every *Back to the Future* film, his character ends up in a pile of manure (in reality, a heap of decayed sphagnum and other plant matters) 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.

In 1992, he voiced gangster Tony Zucco in *Batman: The Animated Series* and police detective Matt Bluestone in the animated series *Gargoyles*.[*citation needed*] He later went to co-star with Mark Hamill in *Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger*, a video game. 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 has done voice-over work for the Nickelodeon TV show *SpongeBob SquarePants*. He has voiced many villainous characters that are physically strong and menacing, such as Flats the Flounder in the second season episode The Bully, and The 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*.[3]

He has hosted 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 show business friends including Samm Levine, Blake Clark, Steve Oedekerk, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and more.

He currently hosts a YouTube channel titled "Tom Wilson".