A pop cultural icon who doesn't rest on his laurels, but reaches out to connect with and entertain every audience, Tom Wilson is one of a kind. His combination of storytelling, solid stand up, and hilarious music, combine to make a unique package in the arena of live performance. He's performed for audiences as diverse as a screaming rock and roll stadium, to a large conference made up largely of priests and nuns. He has performed as a headliner at the top comedy clubs in the country for years, and for tens of thousands as an opening act for Rodney Dangerfield, and rock bands such as Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, Missing Persons, and The Tubes, and has performed his act for corporate events of every kind, from a small, select group of one hundred or less, to Las Vegas conventions of many thousands, with his trademark blend of energy and fun, without the use of easy vulgarity and material met with fewer laughs than gasps of discomfort. Early in his television career, he was even chased by international mega-superstar and recording artist David Hasselhoff on the show KNIGHT RIDER.īut the stage is where he feels most at home. He's been a recurring character on many television shows, including ED, FREAKS AND GEEKS, DO OVER, TITUS, MAGGIE, FIRED UP, and been a guest star on COLD CASE, STILL STANDING, REBA, GEORGE LOPEZ, BOSTON PUBLIC, ZOEY 101, RODNEY, THE FACTS OF LIFE, and many more. He's appeared in some twenty-five feature films, including his Saturn award-winning performance in the now classic BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy, and has recently been a part of the SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS phenomena, performing many voices in the Nickelodeon series, as well as THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE. Accepted as a regular at the world famous "Comedy Store" on the Sunset Strip on his first audition, at 21 years old he became a member of the "Comedy Store Players," improvising onstage with the likes of Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, and the large group of comedy colleagues who formed the nexus of the modern comedy boom. Within a short time, he was headlining in comedy clubs up and down the east coast, and moved to Los Angeles soon after that.
Tom wilson biff full#
He's starred in comedy specials on NBC, Global Television in Canada, and on myriad cable networks, and has written and performed his one man show, "Cowboy Tommy" to critical acclaim and full houses across North America.įanatically eager to get onstage, when Broadway didn't answer the door quickly enough, he began performing stand up comedy in his teens, while studying to be an actor in New York. Internationally, he's appeared on Tonight Live in Australia, Good Morning, Great Britain, and literally hundreds of local television and radio programs around the world. at Wilson is one of the premiere stand up comedians in the country, boasting appearances on The Tonight Show with both Jay Leno and Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Regis, as well as Good Morning, America, The Today Show, and CBS This Morning. Wilson moved out to Hollywood after high school and a year of college, lucking into an audition for Biff.įor his final audition, he channeled all those who had bullied him in school, convincing Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg that here was their Biff. “I was just the artistic kid in school that didn’t fit in anywhere really,” Wilson told the Dayton Daily News in 2009.
“I was George McFly in school,” he told the Orange County Register in 1989 - an asthmatic tuba player bullied by classmates. A man of faith, he’s both hiding and embracing Biff Tannen. He’s also done voice-over work, stand-up comedy, and worked as a pop artist. He is still acting and has appeared in multiple roles in film and on television. Wilson grew up in Wayne and graduated from Radnor High School, more like a “regular guy from a normal family of kind people from Pennsylvania.” Biff Tannen is a legendary antagonist in the Back to the Future franchise, but the actor who plays him, Thomas Wilson Jr., is nothing at all like the character, writes Michael Palan for.