Thomas F. Wilson

Thomas F. Wilson is 67 years old as of 9 November 2026. He was born on 15 April 1959 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [4] [5]. Most people know him as Biff Tannen, the bully of the Back to the Future films, but the credits list is longer than that one role: 111 credits listed on TMDB, a stand-up career that started in his teens, a long run as a cartoon voice on SpongeBob SquarePants, and a second life as a painter who has shown work for Disney and Nickelodeon [4] [3] [1]. He goes by Tom Wilson on his own website and in most interviews [2].

Early life around Philadelphia

Wilson is a Philadelphia native. Philadelphia Magazine says he grew up in Overbrook and moved to Villanova before high school [5]. Celebrity Net Worth, a database site, says he was raised in Wayne, Pennsylvania, so the two accounts differ on the exact suburb [8] [5]. He went to Radnor High School [5]. In a 2026 piece, Hello (carried by Yahoo) said he grew up in Philadelphia and remembers being bullied as a child [7].

After school he studied acting in New York [5]. Celebrity Net Worth lists Arizona State University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts as his schools, but that is the only source we found for those names, so treat them as a lead rather than a settled fact [8]. His family stayed in the Philadelphia area: in 2008 he mentioned siblings in Phoenixville and cousins around the Northeast and New Jersey [5].

Stand-up first, then Los Angeles

The official Back to the Future site says he began performing stand-up in his teens and was headlining comedy clubs along the East Coast before he moved to Los Angeles [3]. The same biography says that at 21 he joined the Comedy Store Players, improvising with Richard Pryor and Robin Williams, and that he was accepted as a regular at the Comedy Store on his first audition [3]. Philadelphia Magazine adds a detail about the early Los Angeles years: he roomed with Andrew Dice Clay and Yakov Smirnoff [5].

He has kept doing stand-up ever since. The biography lists appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, the Late Show with David Letterman, Good Morning America, The Today Show and CBS This Morning, as well as shows in Australia and Britain [3]. He has opened for Rodney Dangerfield, Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, Missing Persons and The Tubes, and he wrote and performed a one-man show called Cowboy Tommy [3]. In 2008 Philadelphia Magazine caught him performing a clean act at Helium Comedy Club [5]. His first stand-up special came out in 2009 under the title Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You [6] [4].

The break: Biff Tannen

The role that changed his career was Biff Tannen in Back to the Future, which came out in 1985 [3] [7]. Wilson played Biff and then, in the sequels, relatives of Biff: Griff Tannen and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen [3] [7]. The films wrapped in 1990 [7]. TheThings describes the role as the one that made him an international star [6]. The Back to the Future site says he received a Saturn Award for the trilogy, and TMDB lists the Saturn win for Back to the Future Part III [3] [4]. None of the pages we could open gives the ceremony year, so we do not state one.

Hello says he improvised two of Biff's best-known lines, "butthead" and "Make like a tree and get out of here," [7]. Fans kept asking him the same questions about the films for decades, and his answer was to write "Biff's Question Song" and perform it in his stand-up show [7] [6]. In that song he confirmed there will not be a fourth Back to the Future film, according to TheThings [6].

Voice work, television and film

After the trilogy he worked steadily in television and animation. The official biography counts about twenty-five feature films and lists recurring roles on Ed, Freaks and Geeks, Do Over, Titus, Maggie and Fired Up, and guest spots on Cold Case, Still Standing, Reba, George Lopez, Boston Public, Zoey 101, Rodney and The Facts of Life [3]. It also says he was chased by David Hasselhoff on Knight Rider early in his television career [3].

His longest run is in animation. He voices several characters in SpongeBob SquarePants and in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie [3]. TheThings says he voiced characters on the show from 2001 to 2021, and that in 2021 he also appeared in The Patrick Star Show and Sydney to the Max [6]. TMDB lists him as Cecil Star in The Patrick Star Show [4]. Other animated credits on TMDB include Gargoyles (as Matt Bluestone), Atlantis: Milo's Return, Rio and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water [4]. Among live-action titles, TMDB lists The Heat, The Informant and, on television, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, where he played Henry "Hank" Heywood [4].

Best-known work

Year	Title	Role
1985	Back to the Future	Biff Tannen [3] [7]
1985 to 1990	Back to the Future trilogy, sequels	Griff Tannen, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Biff [3] [7]
2001 to 2021	SpongeBob SquarePants	Several voices [6] [3]
2009	Tom Wilson: Bigger Than You	Stand-up special [6] [4]
2021	The Patrick Star Show	Cecil Star (voice) [6] [4]
2021	Sydney to the Max	Appeared in the series [6]

The sources we could open do not give release years for the rest of his credits, so we leave years off Freaks and Geeks, Gargoyles, The Heat, The Informant and Legends of Tomorrow rather than guess.

Music and writing

In 2000 Wilson released a contemporary Christian album, In the Name of the Father [6] [7]. TMDB also credits him as a writer on the 2009 special and on a 2024 title called Humbly Super Famous [4]. TheThings adds that he has had work published in literary magazines and wrote a memoir, The Masked Man, without giving a date [6]. He also keeps a YouTube channel with comedy videos and his own music [6].

Painting and pop art

Wilson describes himself as a Southern California artist [2]. His official biography says he studied drawing and painting at the Art Academy of Los Angeles and the California Art Institute, and fine art photography at UCLA [1]. Hello says he also studied art at the Laguna College of Art and Design, which his own site does not list, so we cite it only as the magazine's claim [7].

The exhibition list on his site runs from a 1989 group show, "Let There Be Light", at the California Museum of Photography, through gallery shows in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Toronto in the 2000s [1]. A solo show at Nickelodeon Animation Studios followed in 2005 and a solo show at the Disney Gallery in 2006 [1]. In 2008 his work appeared in "Road Trip" at the San Jose Museum of Art [1]. He had another solo show at Nickelodeon in 2015 and, in 2025, took part in "Persona: The Art of Self-Portraits" at the Forest Lawn Museum [1].

The bio says Walt Disney Studios selected him as a Disney Featured Artist, with commissioned works for Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure, and that his work entered Nickelodeon's permanent collection [1]. Among private collectors it names Judd Apatow [1]. His site also carries a video essay called "I Am Pop Art", in which he reflects on how the art form he loved as a child shaped his own identity [2].

Relationships

Wilson married Caroline Thomas in 1985, at the height of his Back to the Future fame [6] [8]. Hello reports that the wedding was three days after the first film was released [7]. Philadelphia Magazine, in 2008, said he had been married for 23 years and that his wife has a math degree from UCLA [5]. The couple have four children and live in Los Angeles [6] [7]. We do not name the children: only one outlet we could open does, and they are private individuals.

Net worth

Celebrity Net Worth gives a figure of 4 million US dollars, but the page carries no date and the site is a database that builds its numbers from public information [8]. We have not found an estimate from a named financial outlet with an as-of date, so we do not publish a net worth figure for him.

What he is doing now

The 2026 Hello piece describes him as a professional pop artist and painter whose work hangs in galleries across the United States, and says he still works as a stand-up comedian [7]. His animation work continues too: TheThings listed The Patrick Star Show among his 2021 projects, and TMDB credits him on the series as Cecil Star [6] [4]. His own site shows his available paintings and videos, and his latest listed exhibition is the 2025 self-portrait show at Forest Lawn [2] [1].