Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen

BttFCharacter


name=Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen
role=Antagonist
profession=Outlaw
time=1885
timetraveler=No
movies="Part II (cameo), Part III"
film=Thomas F. Wilson

Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen is a fictional character, born in 1857, in "Back to the Future Part III" — he is a town outlaw in Hill Valley, California, in the year 1885. He is the great-grandfather of Biff Tannen from the first two "Back to the Future" films. The role of Buford Tannen is played by Thomas F. Wilson (who also played Biff). Wilson has said his performance as Buford was inspired by Lee Marvin's character in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Buford has a very short temper and a tendency to drool, thus earning him the nickname of "Mad Dog", a name he hates. Buford does not seem to have any fixed address, and he and his gang of three (identified in the script as Stubble, Ceegar, and Buck) ride around the Hill Valley area, robbing, shooting and bullying the local people. For some reason, he took a dislike to Seamus McFly, warning the Irish farmer not to enter the Palace Saloon ever again.

Little is known about Buford's family life, other than he will eventually have a son who will marry Gertrude (the grandmother Biff lives with) and produce Biff's unnamed father. The reveals him to have a brother, Thaddeus Tannen, and a sister, in 1875, although this is not taken as canon by many fans.

The actions of Marty and Doc apparently did not change the history of the Tannen family, as Biff Tannen has the same personality and relation to the McFly family as he did at the end of "Back to the Future". This has led some fans to believe that Buford is not actually a direct ancestor of Biff, but a relative with the same last name, or possibly that Buford's son was already born before the events in "Back to the Future Part III" took place. The latter is more likely, as the documentary at the casino in "Back to the Future Part II" confirms that Buford is Biff's great-grandfather. It is not unreasonable to assume his son was already born at this time, for this would have made the son at least 70 in 1955. It is also possible that since the events happened roughly fifty years before Biff was even born, they likely wouldn't have affected Biff anyway.

Buford also has problems counting (he does not know that "7" comes after "6") and shares his great-grandson's trouble with mixed metaphors (at one point during the movie, he says "I'll hunt you and shoot you down like a duck" instead of "dog.")

Pre-"Back to the Future Part III"

Buford bragged of killing 12 men, "not including Indians or Chinamen"; it's unclear if this is true, however, as records were stopped after Buford shot a newspaper editor who printed an unfavorable story about him in 1884.

At some point between January 1 and September 1, 1885, Buford asked Emmett "Doc" Brown, who had set up a blacksmithing business while trapped in 1885, to shoe his horse, and Buford did not pay for this job. Later the shoe came off, throwing Buford from the saddling and causing the breakage of a bottle of Kentucky "Red Eye" whiskey which he was carrying at the time. Buford then shot the horse in anger.

"Back to the Future Part II"

Buford's role in the trilogy is foreshadowed twice in the previous film. While in 2015 —and before meeting Buford's great-great-great-grandson Griff —Marty plays the videogame Wild Gunman. The main character of this game is named Mad Dog. When Marty returns to the 1985 that Biff Tannen has altered, he finds that Biff now has a museum dedicated to his life. A documentary makes mention of Buford Tannen. Buford's picture is also seen briefly and appears noticeably different than he does in the third film, sporting a large beard, as producers had not yet decided what Buford would look like in the third film. The simplest explanation is that Buford had shaved off his beard sometime prior to September 1885 (or had grown it sometime after). A third, unnamed, foreshadowing of the character appears in a Clint Eastwood movie that Biff watches.

"Back to the Future Part III"

Buford arrived in Hill Valley in the morning of September 3, 1885, looking for Doc. Due to the horseshoe incident he reckoned that Doc owed him $80 ($75 for the horse that he shot, the other $5 for the bottle of whiskey). He threatened Doc, who said that since Buford never paid him for the job that made them even. Buford told Doc to watch his back in the future.

Two days later, on the night of September 5, 1885, at the Hill Valley Festival (celebrating 20 years of cityhood and the arrival of the new clock) Buford attempted to rape Doc's love interest, Clara Clayton. Doc tried to intervene, but Buford had his lackeys hold Doc in position to shoot him in the back (the only explanation of Doc being shot in the back, since until Marty's interference, Buford was aiming for Doc's chest). This caused Doc to die 2 days later on Monday.

Marty McFly in 1955 found the gravestone and headed back to 1885 in the De Lorean time machine to save Doc. After he accidentally called Buford "Mad Dog", Buford nearly hanged him from the courthouse (fortunately, Doc was able to save him). Buford now regarded "Clint Eastwood" (the name Marty was using in 1885) as his enemy. At the dance two days later, Doc escaped being shot by Buford, as he now knew about it from Marty. Marty saved Doc from being shot by throwing a pie plate like a discus (having noticed the company name Frisbee printed on it earlier) at the gun, causing Buford to miss. Buford challenged "Clint" to a shootout Monday morning, causing Marty to agree by calling him "yellow", Marty's one weakness (usually the word is "chicken").

The next morning, Sunday, September 6, 1885, Buford and his gang robbed the Pine City Stage before spending the night by the lake. It is possible that this was their "lair" in the Hill Valley area. On Monday, September 7, 1885, they headed into town to meet "Clint" outside the Palace Saloon at 8 am. Marty had realized that it did not matter what Buford thought of him, and he and Doc tried escaping. Buford spotted them and kidnapped Doc, causing Marty to have to face Buford after all. Marty used the door of a pot-bellied stove as a bulletproof vest (as foreshadowed in Part II while Biff is watching "A Fistful of Dollars" in his hot tub), and then fought Buford by punching him and hitting him with the stove door. This knocked Buford out, causing him to fall into a cartload of manure, beginning a family tradition of sorts that his great-grandson would continue by repeatedly crashing his car into manure trucks. Buford was then arrested for robbing the Pine City Stage and led away. His fate after this is unknown.

In the original version of "Back to the Future Part III", Buford also shot Marshal Strickland in the back while Strickland's son watched. This would have been what Tannen was arrested for at the end (and why Buford is arrested by Strickland's deputy, and not Strickland himself). This scene was cut, though, because it mandated that Marty also shoot Buford at the gun fight, which was something the writers did not want to do in case this altered the future of the entire Bucanan/Tannen family. It was also cut for not being suitable for a "Back to the Future" movie.

"Back to the Future: The Animated Series"

Although Buford did not appear in any episodes, eagle-eyed viewers might have noticed that he does briefly appear in the opening credits of the first season. Doc picks up Clara from 1885 to take her back to 1991, and Buford is bothering her. She kicks him and pulls his hat over his head before getting in the De Lorean and heading home.

The animated series also revealed his siblings, although Buford was not mentioned in that episode - it is possible he arrived in Hill Valley after Thaddeus did, or he was away somewhere else at the time.

Beauregard Tannen, from the season 1 episode "Brothers", was presumed to be the father of Buford.

It is also possible that "Wild Bill" Tannen, from the episode, "Clara's Folks", could have been a cousin to Buford.