Buford Mad Dog Tannen Original Western Costume (Thomas F. Wilson)

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Buford Mad Dog Tannen Original Western Costume (Thomas F. Wilson)

The archives costume is the one used by actor Thomas F. Wilson in Back to the Future III to play the part of Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, a town outlaw in Hill Valley, California, in the year 1885. He was the great-grandfather of Biff Tanen.

Once again the costume was created by costume designer Joanna Johnston. Having designed the clothes for the residents of the Hill Valley in the year 2015 for Back to the Future II, Joanna Johnston found her task somewhat easier when it came to their 1885 ancestors. « I had no frame of reference for the costume of the future, but for Part III, I was dealing with a time period I had experience with the movie Tess from Roman Polanski. »

As per instructions from director Bob Zemeckis, Johnston sought to make the clothes realistic to the western period, and in addition to the principal cast, would have to clothe as many as 500 extras. Johnston scoured the costume houses of Hollywood, and found that most of their costumes were made for the westerns of the ‘40s,’50s and ‘60s, and didn’t reflect the authenticity she thought. Extensive research uncovered original clothing patterns, and hundreds of new antique’ costumes were created.

Writer: PG