Tom Wilson starred as "Biff" in the now classic "Back To The Future" film trilogy, and was seen in the family films "That Darn Cat," "Born To Be Wild" and "Camp Nowhere," as well as the Emmy award winning film about the civil war, "Andersonville." He has been seen in the television series "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch," "Nash Bridges," "Do Over" and on the critically acclaimed "Freaks and Geeks."

I began acting professionally in 1978 in summer stock plays near my home in Pennsylvania. I studied in college, and at a few professional acting schools, including "The Philadelphia Company," and the "American Academy of Dramatic Arts," in New York City, where I laid on the ground a lot, breathing deeply and pretending to be a radish. I was a tremendous radish, but there weren't many plays at that time featuring vegetables, so I moved to California in 1981, where I became a regular performer at The Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard. Before long I was acting on television commercials, introducing North America to the warm glow of Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate. I performed with Tootie, Jo and all the kids at The Facts of Life, and chased the K.I.T.T. car in Knight Rider, before being cast in movies.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Director - Robert Zemeckis

Back to the Future was my first "real" movie role, and most of the questions I'm asked still revolve around the classic trilogy. The answers are: a) Michael J. Fox is a nice guy; b) the manure in the truck was made of peat moss, steer feed, dirt and water. I was buried in it, over my head, for a few hours; c) Eric Stoltz was the first Marty McFly, who was later replaced by Michael J. Fox. Eric, a "method" actor, wanted everybody to call him "Marty" all the time, until he got fired, when I guess it was okay to call him Eric again. When I get punched in the '50s cafe, it is Eric Stoltz's fist that flies through the frame; d) the hoverboards don't really fly, they are connected to wires and are swung by a crane. Thank you. Good night.

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

Director - Fred Walton

Shot in gorgeous Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, there were wild killer whales swimming in the water right where we were shooting. In the movie, there's a scene where I hang upside down from a tree while a snake is trying to bite me. To fake this, they asked me to hang upside down from a tree while a snake tried to bite me. I said no. I mean, after staring at them for a few moments in disbelief, I said no. They told me they'd break off the snake's teeth, so what could it hurt even if it did bite me? I said no. They said the snake was completely tame, and to prove it, the snake owner opened the burlap bag to show me the tame snake. As soon as the bag was opened the snake bit the guy's hand, hard, and didn't let go. While he was dripping blood onto the set, the guy was still trying to tell me how tame the snake was. Finally, they put a piece of glass between me and the snake.

LET'S GET HARRY (formerly "The Rescue")

Director - Stuart Rosenberg

Shot mostly in the jungles around Veracruz, Mexico, the young locals who worked on the production would walk into the jungle and come back in a few seconds with a tarantula as big as your hand, or a couple of scorpions. This movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg, who finally took his name off the credits, replacing it with "Alan Smithee." In solidarity with Stuart, I took my name off the credits also, replacing it with "Robert Duvall."

ACTION JACKSON

Director - Craig Baxley

Carl Weathers IS Action Jackson. …Need I say more?

THE LAST RIDE

Director - Bill Russ

I co-wrote this short film and got to act with a great man, great cowboy and Academy Award-winning actor Ben Johnson. Ben and I had worked together in Let's Get Harry and I jumped at the chance to work with him again. Ben was one of the nicest men I've ever worked with, and he taught me to spin and throw a rope, as well as ride a horse. He kept his Oscar on his TV at home, in the midst of souvenir knick knacks and the TV Guide.

SMART ALEX (formerly "Levitation Blues")

Director - Steve Oedekerk

Steve was my best friend and had saved his money to shoot his own feature film. We shot it all over Los Angeles, at times running from the police, and shooting at locations, well, without official permission. After he finished the film, the film itself was stolen, and it's apparently a big, illegal success in many third world countries.

BACK TO THE FUTURE, PARTS 2 AND 3 (formerly "Paradox")

Director - Robert Zemeckis

We shot these movies back to back, one after the other, and it took a year and a half or so to finish them. I played six different characterizations of Biff, Griff, and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, and the make up took between four and seven hours to apply, depending on the character. For more BTTF info, check out the story "Biff To The Future," that I wrote for Us magazine.

HIGH STRUNG (formerly "Pissed Off")

Director - Roger Nygard

Steve Oedekerk wrote this movie and got me to help out again, along with Jim Carrey and Fred Willard. It won some awards at film festivals, and is a funny low-budget movie.

BACK TO THE FUTURE...THE RIDE

Director - Douglas Trumbull

We shot lots of special scenes for the BTTF ride, most of them in IMAX film, which is a huge camera, manned by an army of technicians. We shot it in, of all places, Stockbridge, Mass., the hometown of Norman Rockwell. The ride was directed by Douglas Trumbull, a great filmmaker in his own right, having directed the movie Brainstorm as well as the special effects in the classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Doug and I had a lot of fun together, until he put me in a prototype of the ride. It projected a black and white rough cut of the ride film, and had one small programmed car to sit in. After a few minutes of jostling and rough footage, I had to find a cot and lie down for a while.

BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT...BOUND BY HONOR

Director - Taylor Hackford

There was a drive-by shooting on the set of this gang-themed movie. As we were shooting our fake guns in the midst of east L.A., we could always hear the sound of real gunfire only a few blocks away. The homies who worked on the movie and really grew up in East L.A. refused to believe I was an actor, and called me "cop" for the whole shoot, absolutely certain that I was an undercover cop working on the movie. Just to make them happy, when we finished the shoot, I pulled them over and strip searched them, finding a large amount of contraband.

MR. WRITE (formerly "Don't Stop Now")

Director - Charlie Loventhal

Paul Reiser is an old friend of mine from stand up comedy, and we had a lot of fun filming this movie. It also gave me the opportunity to work with Martin Mull, an actor and comedian and artist that I respect very much. Martin is a great painter, and we talked about painting on the set quite a bit, which was a thrill for me.

CAROLINE AT MIDNIGHT (formerly "Someone's Watching")

Director - Scott McGinnis

What can I say? Though I know I’m in it, I can’t remember anything about this one at all, and I’m sure you can say the same thing.

CAMP NOWHERE

Director - Jonathan Prince

Christopher Lloyd is a great guy and it was great to work with him again in this movie for kids.

BORN TO BE WILD (formerly "Katie")

Director - John Gray

This was a gorilla movie and the gorilla was always fake. They didn't want to deal with any press conferences about animal cruelty or anything, so to avoid Bob Barker, they shot every scene with a guy in a gorilla suit. His name was Leif. He was small and athletic and sweaty. And nice.

ANDERSONVILLE

Director - John Frankenheimer

This was a very difficult and worthwhile film to be a part of. My great, great grandfather was a Union soldier who was captured in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia in 1864. He was sent to Andersonville prison in Georgia, where he spent his 21st birthday. It was a great honor for me to play a Union soldier imprisoned at Andersonville, in a film that told the story of those men. The late John Frankenheimer won an Emmy Award for his direction, and he did not need me to accept the award on his behalf, although I was ready.

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS

Created by - Stephen Hillenburg

I have the distinction of being a voice over actor who has had long, tough fights with both Batman and Superman in cartoons, both leading to my character’s death after a long fall off a cliff. But enough about Batman and Superman. SpongeBob Squarepants is my hero. It’s a great show to work on, and I’ve played many different characters, including Patrick’s two fathers - the fake one and the real one, Flats - the flounder, Reg - the bouncer at the Salty Spittoon, the Tattletale Strangler, and a mystery character that I’m not at liberty to discuss…

ED

Created by - Jon Beckerman, Rob Burnett

I played Stuckeyville firefighter Sean Nowell on the show for a number of episodes, and had a great time shooting in New Jersey, visiting my family in Philadelphia on the weekends. Yo.

FREAKS AND GEEKS

Created by - Judd Apatow, Paul Feig

Coach Fredericks is about as universal a gym teacher as can be. Judd Apatow is an old friend from stand up comedy, and I had a great time playing the guy who tortured me when I was in school, and answering the rest of the young cast’s Back to the Future questions. Yes, kids, it was real manure.

BOSTON PUBLIC

Created by - David E. Kelley

I played an angry Dad, squaring off with the teachers and administrators, but Whitney Houston sang a song at the end and everybody felt better, so much better about themselves.

Other acting roles include guest-starring appearances on lots of television shows, including Two and a Half Men, Do Over, Maggie, Fired Up, The Pitts, The Facts of Life, Knight Rider, etc.

(See: Caroline at Midnight above)

THAT DARN CAT

Director - Robert Spiers

I'm allergic to cats. Peter Boyle and I had done the gorilla movie together, so it was great to work with him again, as well as Estelle Parsons, an actress whom I admire very much. Bob Spiers directed the British TV show Absolutely Fabulous, and who better to shoot an American movie about a kooky cat than a guy who...uh...

NINJA TURF (formerly "L.A. Streetfighters")

Director - Richard Woo-sang Park

I was studying karate in the early '80s, and my karate teacher asked me to get killed in his movie. I was killed by an axe to the chest within seconds of showing up onscreen. The axe to the chest was fake, but I did get slammed in the back of the head for real, by black belt with a wooden staff, which hurt a lot.

WING COMMANDER III, IV, V

Director - Chris Roberts, Adam Foshko

Although they're not feature films per se, the Wing Commander series is a very popular CD-ROM game for computers. We shot the entire Wing Commander series — Heart of the Tiger, The Price of Freedom, and Prophecy — exactly like feature films with a top notch cast, including Malcolm McDowell, Mark Hamill, John Rhys-Davies, and Jason Bernard, and yours truly as "Maniac," a thorn in the side of cast and player alike. They're among the highest selling interactive games of all time.

GIRL

Director - Jonathan Khan

(See: Caroline At Midnight above)

BORIS AND NATASHA: THE MOVIE

Director - Charles Martin Smith

(see Caroline at Midnight above.)

NATIONAL LAMPOON'S MEN IN WHITE

Director - Scott Levy, Bruce McCarthy

This was a very silly film, never to be confused with classic cinema, but hey, it was goofy, and my kids loved it. Enough said.

TEEN BOY

Director - Jim Hope

There is a good reason why an image is unavailable. I have found and destroyed every image connected to this thing. Just kidding. It was about a “Boy Band” made up of middle-aged guys eating doughnuts and doing ridiculous dance moves. No wonder that no human being has ever laid eyes on it.

TRIAL AND ERROR (formerly "Behind the Screams")

Director - Michael Bayouth

My friend Michael Bayouth directed this film, an entirely improvised comedy/thriller/courtroom drama.

THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE

Director - Sherm Cohen

The secrecy involved in the SpongeBob Squarepants movie rivals the secrecy around the Back to the Future trilogy...but I can say this...uh...well, I'm in it...and it's good...and...it takes place under water (animated).

Voice-over roles include Atlantis: Milo's Return, Gargoyles, Back to the Future - The Animated Series, Wing Commander Academy, Batman: The Animated Series, and the video games Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.

Okay, since you’ve come this far I’ll tell you a bit of acting trivia. I’m known for a number of acting roles, but my real claim to fame is that I was the actor on the television commercial that introduced biscuits at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I played a young, hungry construction worker, eating a chicken breast happily, until a biscuit popped into my hand. “A biscuit? ” I thought, “From KFC? Impossible!” No, it wasn’t impossible. It was true. KFC had biscuits. I introduced them. Let’s face it, it changed your life.

You’re welcome.