Movies - Biff Tannen

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	Movies - Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen is a fictional character, the main villain in the Back to the Future
motion picture trilogy, played in the three films and voiced in the animated series by Thomas F. Wilson.

Biff was born on March 26, 1937 in Hill Valley, California. He is the great grandson of Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen. He is not very bright and only got through high school by bullying George McFly to do his homework for him. Biff is feared by most of his schoolmates. He is less brave when he is without his gang. He also has a crush on Lorraine Baines and constantly refers to her as "my girl." Lorraine does not return the sentiments.

By 1985, Biff's marital status is unknown – no mention of a wife or children was ever made in the trilogy, although Biff has a grandson Griff by 2015, suggesting that Biff had at least one child by 1985. The animated series reveals that Biff has a son, Biff Jr, although this is not taken as canon by many fans. A draft script reveals that his middle initial is "H", although his middle name was never mentioned in the trilogy. Also, a BTTF comic showed a "Mugsy Tannen" living in 1920's Prohibition-era Chicago as a gang boss, probably Mad Dog's son.

Biff is noted for malapropisms: for example, he thinks the saying is "make like a tree and get out of here" instead of "make like a tree and leave." His attitude is to do something rather than think things over and he has no problems with using his fists to get what he wants. Biff will try and get out of paying for things if he has to and is looking for a nice easy life where everyone else will do things for him. He also likes cars and ends up with a career waxing and cleaning them with his auto detailing business. Biff is still a bully, but can be nice and/or charming when he needs to be, usually to get out of trouble. Also, as the trilogy unfolds, we discover Biff has a strong dislike of manure.

Pre-Back to the Future

Although we have some vague details of Biff's life before 1955 (when we first meet him chronologically), exact details are not known. What is known is that he has been living with his grandma, Gertrude Tannen, at 1809 Mason Street for some time by November 1955. The whereabouts of his parents is not known, although some theories suggest that one of both of them might be dead or in prison. He also had to repeat a year of school (explaining why, despite being a year older than George and Lorraine, he is in the same year as them), although it is not known exactly when he was "kept behind" – this was probably some years prior to 1955, as Biff appears to have been bullying George for some time before this date.

Back to the Future

In the original timeline, Biff started bullying George McFly when they were kids and never stopped. Over the next 30 years, Biff would continue to bully and intimidate George, as they both ended up working for the same company where Biff became George's supervisor (due to George doing all Biff's work for him to get promoted). Biff's crush on Lorraine never died either, although Lorraine had married George and presumably Biff had married as well.

However, things changed when the McFlys' youngest son, Marty McFly, accidentally traveled back through time to 1955 using his friend Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine and interfered with his parents' first meeting. Marty, using the anachronistic name "Calvin Klein," also managed to get on the wrong side of Biff by standing up to him, something which Biff was not used to. Marty was also indirectly responsible for causing Biff to crash his car into a manure truck, and this led to Biff finding Marty and Lorraine on the night of the school dance (November 12, 1955). Biff's gang trapped Marty in the trunk of another car and Biff tried to get his way with Lorraine. George came along, as part of the plan he and Marty had made where George would find Marty "parking" with Lorraine, and realised that the pretend rescue was now a real one. For the first time, George stood up to Biff to save Lorraine, and punched him hard in the face. Shocked at being harmed by his weak enemy, Biff fainted.

This punch led to a much more confident George, and Biff no longer had a victim to pick on. He may have found someone else to bully, but some theories suggest that as the weakest kid in school had stood up to and punched Biff, no-one else would let him bully them anymore. Since Biff no longer had George to do his work for him, he now had to do things for himself. He started up his auto-detailing business, which he owns and runs himself, and by 1985 it seems to be quite popular. The McFlys are among his customers. Biff is nice to his customers to their faces, but can still be mean if he has to be.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Biff Tannen ]

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