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This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of an administrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains.

Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban.
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Villain Overview

WRONG! That's yours. So, from now on, you'd better be lookin' behind you when you walk. 'Cause one day, you're gonna git a bullet in your back!
~ Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen threatens to kill Emmett Brown.

Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen is the main antagonist of the 1990 sci-fi western film Back to the Future Part III, the third and final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy.

An outlaw living in the latter half of the 19th century, he lived around Hill Valley, California. Tannen was the great-grandfather of Biff Tannen.

He was portrayed by Thomas F. Wilson, who also played Biff and Griff Tannen in the same film series, Victor in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Flats the Flounder and the Tattletale Strangler in the SpongeBob SquarePants series, Camoflush in The Epic Tale of Captain Underpants, Ashtin Carnaby in Atlantis: Milo's Return, Electro in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions and Rok-Ko in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.

Personality

Buford, like the everyone else in the Tannen family, is extremely ill-mannered, mean-spirited and egoistical. Unlike his great-grandson Biff however, Buford is far more menacing and dangerous, owing to his violent temper and the lack of law enforcement in the Wild West era.

Buford will not hesitate to kill people who opposes him, offends him or slights him in any way. When Marty called him "Mad Dog", a nickname Buford hates, Buford and his gang attempted to kill Marty out of anger, first by shooting at him, then hanging him with a rope. He also attempted to extort Doc Brown out of $80 despite him never paying Doc for his blacksmithing services. When Doc stood his ground and refused his demands, Buford threatened to kill Doc, and would have been successful in doing so had it not been for Marty's intervention.

As a gunslinger, Buford prefers to shoot to kill rather than fight hand-to-hand. This is shown when Marty attempted to get Buford to fight it out "like men", Buford refused, instead immediately proceeding to shoot the unarmed Marty. While he was able to hold his own in a fistfight, like the rest of the Tannens, Buford isn't very bright as he proceeded to punch Marty who was wearing a metal plate on his chest, only to unsurprisingly injure himself, allowing Marty to eventually gain the upper hand and defeat him.

History

Buford Tannen was a notorious gunman, whose short temper and a tendency to drool, earned him the nickname 'Mad Dog'. He was quick on the trigger and bragged that he had killed 12 men, not including Indians or Chinamen. However, this claim cannot be substantiated since precise records were not kept after Tannen shot a newspaper editor after printing an unfavourable story about him in 1884.
~ Information on Buford Tannen from the Hill Valley City Archives.

Buford Tannen was nicknamed 'Mad Dog' because of his temper and his tendency to drool. Tannen himself hated the nickname and would react violently when people called him that to his face. Tannen was a notorious gunman who had shot at least 12 men, "not including Indians or Chinamen." Later generations would have a hard time verifying that claim since Tannen had shot the local newspaper editor, when the man printed an unfavorable article about him in 1884.

Sometime in 1885, Tannen approached Doc Brown to shoe his horse. Doc Brown did so, but then Tannen failed to pay for the job. The horse later threw his shoe while Tannen was riding him. As a result Tannen was thrown from his horse, along with a bottle of whiskey. Tannen would later demand Doc pay him $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse, totaling $80. Doc offered to re-shoe the horse, but it was too late since Tannen had shot the horse. Brown refused since Tannen never paid him for the original job.

In the original timeline, Tannen murdered Emmet "Doc" Brown by shooting him in the back. Doc Brown was buried by his girlfriend Clara in a cemetery on the outskirts of town, she had it noted on his stone that he was shot in the back over a matter of $80.

History rewritten

Encounter with "Clint Eastwood"

"Mad Dog?" I hate that name. I hate it. You hear? Nobody calls me "Mad Dog"! Especially not some duded-up, egg-suckin' gutter trash!
~ Tannen after 'Clint Eastwood' (Marty McFly) accidentally gets on his bad side.

70 years later, in 1955, when Marty McFly discovered Doc's fate, he went back to 1885 to save Doc, and upon arriving in Hill Valley soon meet Tannen in the Palace Saloon. Tannen mistook Marty for Seamus McFly (Marty's great- great grandfather), who Tannen had warned not to set foot in the Palace Saloon. Tannen realized Marty wasn't Seamus, but commented that he looked like him, "especially with that dog-ugly hat". This snide remark drew laughs from Buford's gang. Tannen asked Marty if he was related to Seamus and asked what his name was. Marty replied "Eastwood. Clint Eastwood". Tannen asked "What kinda stupid name is that?" and he and his gang mocked "Clint's" clothing. Just as the saloon's bartender was pouring whiskey for Tannen and his gang. the outlaw asked the bartender if he had seen "that no- good, cheatin' blacksmith". Frightened, the bartender said "No, sir, Mr. Tannen. I haven't". Just then, Marty recognized him and said "You're Mad-Dog Tannen", enraging Buford and causing everyone in the Saloon to run and hide. Tannen angrily told Marty he hated the nickname and said "Nobody calls me 'Mad Dog'!". Tannen grabbed his gun and, to the amusement of his gang, shot at Marty's feet multiple times, telling him to dance. Marty moonwalked, leaving Tannen, his gang and everyone in the Saloon bewildered. With Tannen and his men distracted, Marty threw a spitoon, which landed on Tannen and spilt its contents down his front. Enraged, Tannen pointed his gun at Marty, but the barrel was empty. The outlaw ordered his gang to "Get him!", but Marty ran out of the Saloon, with Tannen and his gang chasing after him.

The Hanging

We got ourselves a new Courthouse! High time we had a hanging!
~ Buford attempts to hang Marty.

Marty ran on foot while Tannen and his gang pursued him on horseback. Tannen caught Marty with a lasso, and he and his gang rode towards the under- construction Hill Valley Courthouse. Tannen attempted to hang the youth, but Marty was saved by Doc Brown. Tannen confronted the blacksmith, by commenting that Doc owed him money. When asked how much, Tannen said his horse threw a shoe and since Doc did the shoeing, that made him responsible. Doc retorted that since Tannen never paid him for the job, that made them even. The outlaw stated that he was on his horse when it threw the shoe, he fell off the horse and broke a bottle of Kentucky Red Eye whiskey. So, Tannen stated that Doc owed him $5 for the whiskey, and $75 for the horse ($80 in total). Doc shouted that Tannen should bring is horse back and reshoe him, but Tannen shouted that he shot the horse. Doc retorted "Well that's your problem, Tannen!". Tannen then told Doc that the problem was his, and warned him that he would get a bullet in his back. After that, Tannen and his gang rode out of town.

Hill Valley Town Festival

What's wrong, dude? You yellow? That's it, isn't it? 'Yellow-belly'.
~ Tannen calls 'Clint Eastwood' yellow.

Tannen and his gang arrived at the Hill Valley Town Festival to look for Doc. When he attempted to force his way into the festival armed, he was foiled by James Strickland, Hill Valley's marshal, who threatened him with a double-barrel shotgun, forcing him to surrender every weapon on him and his gang to Strickland with the exception of a one-shot Derringer handgun hidden under his hat.

At the festival, Tannen spots Doc and attempts to shoot him with his Derringer, but was foiled by Marty, who used a metal pie plate as frisby to deflect the shot. Enraged by this, Tannen challenged Marty to a duel at 8:00 Monday morning, to which Marty reluctantly accepts only after being taunted as "yellow" by Tannen.

'Clint Eastwood' vs. Buford Tannen

Time's up, runt!

Train delays and the capture of Doc Brown by Tannen forced Marty to face the gunslinger. Taking a cue from a Clint Eastwood film, Marty wore an iron stove door under his poncho. This saved his life and enabled him to defeat Tannen, erasing the tombstone that sent Marty back to 1885 from history when Tannen's head cracked it in two.

Beginning a family tradition, Tannen fell into a cart full of manure as law enforcement arrived to arrest him for robbing the Pine City Stage.

Defeat

I hate manure.
~ Buford Tannen's last words before his arrest.

Humiliated and defeated, Buford Tannen's last words were later used again by his great-grandson Biff in 1955 with the same hatred of manure passed onto him.

It is possible that before his death, Buford married Biff's great-grandmother, and fathered Biff's grandfather.

Trivia

  • In the Paradox script (an original draft, which combined the plots of Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III) Buford's nickname was "Black Biff".
  • In Back to the Future Part II, a photo of Tannen is seen, though he sports a large beard.
  • Biff is named after his great-grandfather since his real name is Buford.
  • Tom F. Wilson stated his performance was inspired by Liberty Valance from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
  • He had a uncle named Thaddeus Tannen in Back to the Future: The Animated Series. But whether it's canon or not is ambiguous.

Navigation

           BackToTheFutureTitle Villains

Biff Tannen's Gang/BiffCo
Biff Tannen (Match, Skinhead & 3-D)

Griff Tannen's Gang
Griff Tannen (Data, Spike & Whitey)

Buford Tannen's Gang
Buford Tannen (Stubble, Ceegar & Buck)

Tannen Crime Family
Kid Tannen | Cliff Tannen | Riff Tannen

Others
The Libyans | Edna Strickland | Megatron (Transformers/Back to the Future) | Tannen Family

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