Biff Howard Tannen is a legendary villain in the Back to the Future franchise. But the actor who plays him, Thomas F. Wilson Jr. is nothing at all like the character. Michael Palan revved his 1.21-jigawatt journalistic talent to file the story at looper.com.

Wilson grew up in Wayne and graduated Radnor High School, more like a “regular guy from a normal family of kind people from Pennsylvania.”

He is still acting and has appeared in multiple roles in film and television.

He’s also done voice-over work, stand-up comedy, and worked as a pop artist. A man of faith, he’s both hiding and embracing Biff Tannen.

“I was George McFly in school,” he told the Orange County Register in 1989. Wilson described himself as an asthmatic tuba player bullied by classmates. 

“I was just the artistic kid in school that didn’t fit in anywhere really,” Wilson told the Dayton Daily News in 2009.

Wilson moved to Hollywood after high school, and a year of college, auditioned for the villainous Biff role.  

For his final audition, he channeled all those who had bullied him in school, convincing Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg that here was their Biff.

Read more at looper.com about the extensive career and life of Thomas F. Wilson Jr.