Mr. T

Mr. T
Born	Laurence Tureaud May 21, 1952 (1952-05-21) (age 58) , U.S.
Occupation	actor, motivational speaker, wrestler, bodyguard, TV personality
Years active	1982–present

Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud; May 21, 1952) is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is also well-known for his distinctive mohawk hairstyle, for wearing large amounts of gold jewelry, and for his tough guy image. In 2006 he starred in the reality show I Pity the Fool, shown on TV Land, the title of which comes from his catchphrase from Rocky III.

Early life

Mr. T was born Laurence Tureaud in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud Sr., was a minister.^[1] Tureaud, with his four sisters and seven brothers, grew up in one of the city's housing projects, Robert Taylor Homes.

Tureaud attended Dunbar High School,^[2] where he played football, wrestled, and studied martial arts. He won a football scholarship to Prairie View A&M University, where he majored in mathematics, but was expelled after his first year.^[3] He then enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Military Police Corps. After his discharge, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers, but failed to make the team due to a knee injury.^[3]

Tureaud next worked as a bouncer. It was at this time that he created the persona of "Mr. T". His wearing of gold neck chains and other jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them behind at the bar/night club after a fight. A customer, who may have been banned from the club or trying to avoid another confrontation, would not have to re-enter the club if Mr. T wore their jewelry as he stood out front. When a customer returned to claim the item, it was readily visible and available with no further confrontations required. He managed eventually to parlay his job as a bouncer into a career as a bodyguard to the stars that lasted almost ten years. He protected well-known personalities like Muhammad Ali, Steve McQueen, Michael Jackson, Leon Spinks, Joe Frazier and Diana Ross, charging $3,000 per day.^[4]

Acting roles and work

While reading National Geographic, Mr. T first noticed the unusual hairstyle, for which he is now famous, on a Mandinka warrior.^[5] He decided that adoption of the style would be a powerful statement about his African origin. It was a simpler, safer and more permanent visual signature than his gold chains, rings, and bracelets. The gold jewelry was worth about $300,000 at the time and took him about an hour to put on. Most nights, Mr. T spent even more time cleaning them using an ultrasonic cleaner. Occasionally, he slept with the heavy neck chains and bracelets on, "to see how my ancestors, who were slaves, felt."^[6]

In 1980, Mr. T was spotted by Sylvester Stallone while taking part in NBC's "America's Toughest Bouncer" competition—a segment of NBC's Games People Play.^[7] Although his role in Rocky III was originally intended as just a few lines, he was eventually cast as Clubber Lang, the primary antagonist. His catchphrase, "I pity the fool!", comes from the film; when asked if he hates Rocky, Lang replies, "No, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool." Subsequently, after losing out on the role of the title character's mentor in The Beastmaster, Mr. T appeared in another boxing film, Penitentiary 2, and on an episode of Showtime's early sketch comedy series Bizarre, where he fights and eats Super Dave Osborne, before accepting a television series role on The A-Team.

Mr. T also appeared in an episode of Silver Spoons, reprising his old role as bodyguard to Ricky Stratton. In the episode, he explains his name as "First name: Mister; middle name: period; last name T." In one scene, when Ricky's class erupts into a paper ball throwing melee, Mr. T throws his body in front of the objects, fully protecting his client.

In The A-Team, he played Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus (B.A. is an abbreviation of "Bad Attitude"), an ex-army commando on the run with three other members from the U.S. government "for a crime they didn't commit". As well as the team's tough guy, B.A. was a genius mechanic but afraid of flying. When asked at a press conference whether he was as stupid as B.A. Baracus, he observed quietly, "It takes a smart guy to play dumb".

His role in The A-Team led to him making an appearance in the long-running sit-com Diff'rent Strokes in the sixth season opener "Mr T. and mr. t" (1983), in which an episode of The A-Team is supposedly filmed in the family's penthouse apartment.

Mr. T plays Santa Claus with First Lady Nancy Reagan for Christmas at the White House, 1983

A Ruby-Spears produced cartoon called Mister T premiered in 1983 on NBC. The Mister T cartoon starred Mr. T as himself, the owner of a gym where a group of gymnasts trained. He helped them with their training but they also helped him solve mysteries and fight crime in Scooby-Doo-esque scenarios. Thirty episodes were produced.

In 1984, he made a motivational video called Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!. He gives helpful advice to children throughout the video; for example, he teaches them how to understand and appreciate their origins, how to dress fashionably without buying designer labels, how to make tripping up look like breakdancing, how to control their anger, and how to deal with peer pressure. The video is roughly one hour long, but contains 30 minutes of singing, either by the group of children accompanying him, or by Mr. T himself. He sings "Treat Your Mother Right (Treat Her Right)", in which he enumerates the reasons why it is important to treat your mother right, and also raps a song about growing up in the ghetto and praising God. The raps in this video were written by Ice T.^[8]

In 1988, Mr. T starred in the television series T. and T.. Mr. T was once reported to be earning around $80,000 a week for his role in The A-Team and earning $15,000 for personal appearances. By the end of the 1990s, he was appearing only in the occasional commercial, largely because of health problems (In 1995, he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma).^[9] He frequently appears on the TBN Christian television network. He has appeared in commercials for MCI's 1-800-COLLECT collect-call service and on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He has also appeared on some Comcast commercials, and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand during 2007, advertising the chocolate bar Snickers with the slogan "Get Some Nuts!".^[10] One of these commercials, featuring Mr. T crashing through a wall on the back of a technical vehicle before firing Snickers bars at a speed walker wearing tight-fitting yellow shorts, was pulled by Mars following a complaint by the US-based group Human Rights Campaign, despite the fact that the advert had never been shown outside the UK. The group alleged that the commercial promoted the idea that violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people "is not only acceptable, but humorous".^[11] Mr. T has distanced himself from these accusations, insisting that he would never lend his name to something that supports such beliefs, and that the commercials did not depict such promotions. The commercials are still shown on Australian television.

Mr. T did a video campaign for Hitachi's Data Systems that was created and posted on consumer video sites including YouTube and Yahoo! Video. According to Steven Zivanic, senior director and corporate communications of HDS, "this campaign has not only helped the firm in its own area, but it has given the data storage firm a broader audience."^[12] In November 2007, Mr. T appeared in a television commercial for the online role playing game World of Warcraft with the phrase "I'm Mr. T and I'm a Night Elf Mohawk".^[13] A followup to this commercial appeared in November 2009 where he appeared promoting the "mohawk grenade" item, which appears in game and turns other players into Mr T's likeness.

In 2008 Mr. T appeared on the American channel Shopping TV selling his "Mr. T Flavorwave Oven".^[14]

A video game starring Mr T. is also being developed by ZootFly.^[15]

Mr. T was offered a cameo appearance in the film adaptation of The A-Team, but decided to turn it down.^[16] With Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict both making cameos in the film,^[17][18] and George Peppard having died in 1994, this made Mr. T the only surviving main cast member of The A-Team not to make a cameo in the film.

Wrestling

Mr. T entered the world of professional wrestling in 1985. He was Hulk Hogan's tag-team partner at the first WrestleMania. Hulk Hogan wrote in his autobiography that Mr. T saved the main event of WrestleMania I between them and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff because when he arrived, security would not let his entourage into the building. Mr. T was ready to skip the show until Hogan personally talked him out of leaving. Piper has said that he and other fellow wrestlers disliked Mr. T because he was an actor coming into wrestling and had never paid his dues as a professional wrestler.

Remaining with the WWF, Mr. T became a special "WWF boxer," in light of his character in Rocky III. He took on "Cowboy" Bob Orton on the March 1, 1986 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, on NBC. This boxing stunt ultimately culminated in another boxing match against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2. Mr. T returned to the World Wrestling Federation as a special guest referee in 1987 as well as a special referee enforcer confronting such stars as the Honky Tonk Man.

Seven years later, Mr. T reappeared as a special referee for a Hogan-Ric Flair match, in October 1994, at Halloween Havoc, and then went on to wrestle again, defeating Kevin Sullivan at that year's Starrcade.

Mr. T returned to wrestling another seven years later, appearing in the front row of an episode of WWF Raw on November 19, 2001.^[19]

Albums

In 1984 Mr. T released an album titled Mr. T's Commandments (Columbia/CBS Records), much in the same tone as his 1984 educational video, which instructed children to stay in school and to stay away from drugs. He later followed up with a second album the same year, titled Mr T's Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool! (MCA Records), which featured music from the film of the same name.

In 2002, Mr. T appeared in the video for "Pass The Courvoisier" by Busta Rhymes featuring P. Diddy and Pharell Williams.

Personal life

Mr. T is a born-again Christian.^[20]

In 1990, a Chicago woman, Vanessa Taylor, filed a Petition to Establish Parentage regarding a boy which she claimed Mr. T had fathered. The case was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois under the docket number 1990 D 79322. There was no disposition recorded on the court docket as of 1994.^[21]

Filmography

References

External links

• Mr. T at the Internet Movie Database
• Official Mr. T site
• TV Land's official I Pity The Fool page
• Legendary TV's Mr. T profile
• Mr. T discusses his Christian faith
• Mr T talks technology