Mr.T, whose real name is Laurence Tureaud is well known for his big gold jewelry, his
tough guy act, and let’s not forget his infamous mohawk.
We first met Mr.T in the movie called Penitentiary 2 in 1982, but he’s best remembered for
his role as Sylvester Stallone’s boxer rival as James “clubber” Lang in Rocky 3 and
this was when his famous catch phrase " I pity the fool" was born.
He was casted by Sylvester Stallone when he saw him on TV in NBC's "America's Toughest
Bouncer" competition.
And in 1983 he starred in the movie called D.C Cab as Samsun.
From 1983-1985 Mr.T starred in his own cartoon series called Mister T that aired on NBC for
3 seasons.
Where he played a gymnastics coach who solved mysteries while travelling the world and at
the end of each episode Mr.T himself would tell the viewing audience the moral lesson.
We also know him from the show called The A-Team where he played B.A.
Baracus for 5 seasons from 1983-1987.
You may have also seen him in several cameos as himself in shows like Silver spoons, Different
Strokes and Blossom.
Now, Mr.T had many jobs before he became an actor.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois where he was the youngest son of 12 kids.
He was raised by his mother because his father left when he was really young.
He went to Dunbar Vocational high school where he played football, and was on the wrestling
team where he became a two-time wrestling champion.
He also excelled in football and got a football scholarship at Prairie View A&M University
where he majored in mathematics but he got expelled his very first year.
And not long after that Mr.T joined the United States Army and served in the Military Police
Corp and out of 6,000 troops won an honor of “Top Trainee of the Cycle”.
And in November 1975, he was awarded a letter of recommendation by his drill sergeant and
was also promoted to squad leader.
And after he was discharged from the army he decided to try out for the Green Bay Packers
but didn’t make the team because he hurt his knee.
He then worked as a bouncer at Chicago nightclubs which is around the time when The Mr.T name
came about.
The reason that he came up with name was because when he was young he would see some of his
family members, like his brother, dad and uncle being called boy so he came up with
this name so when people said it, the first word out of their mouth would be Mr. This
is also around the time he started to collect his jewelry which apparently came from people
that left them behind at the night clubs.
And he also started to wear a mohawk which came from a National Geographic photo of an
African Mandinka warrior.
When he worked in the nightclubs he had a reputation of Chicago’s toughest most infamous
bouncer and because he came in contact with so many celebrities he eventually became
a celebrity bodyguard for nearly ten years protecting people like Diana Ross, Michael
Jackson and Muhammad Ali.
He also got odd job offers, one being for Mr.T to assassinate a man’s friend.
The man even went so far as to send him an envelope full of money and the info of the
person they wanted killed.
Mr.T refused the offer and even tried to contact the person whose life was in danger but the
person had died in a car accident.
But when he met Sylvester Stallone in 1980 his life and career changed forever.
So whatever Happened to Mr.T?
Well, in 1984 Mr.T had a strong reputation for trying to help young people and he put
out a soundtrack called Mr.T’s Commandments to encourage the youth to make good decisions
and he also put out an album called Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!
Again aiming it at young people to make better decisions.
He also had a cereal named after him that was manufactured by Quaker Oats in 1984.
And in 1985, Mr. T decided to become a professional wrestler.
He became the tag-team partner with none other than, Hulk Hogan, a wrestling legend in WrestleMania
1 and they won.
He decided to stay with WWF as a special "WWF boxer.
He also had a boxing match against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2 and won the boxing match
in Round 4.
Now after the A Team was cancelled, Mr.T starred in a show called T and T from 1987-1990 for
3 seasons.
He starred as a kid who was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, but with the help of a
young female lawyer he was able to fight the charges and later on become a private detective.
Now towards the end of the 1990s, Mr.T was only doing the occasional commercial, mainly
because of his health issues.
Mr.T unfortunately found out he had cancer called T-cell lymphoma in 1995 and as a result
his career suffered.
But has he got better he started to make some appearances in movies like Inspector Gadget
in 1999.
And he even did movies like Not Another Teen Movie and Judgment in 2001.
And in that very same year Mr. T officially went into remission.
In 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit and Mr.T saw the destruction that was left behind he
stopped wearing nearly all his gold, He said "As a Christian, when I saw other people lose
their lives and lose their land and property ... I felt that it would be a sin before God
for me to continue wearing my gold.
I felt it would be insensitive and disrespectful to the people who lost everything, so I stopped
wearing my gold.
But in 2010, when the value of gold was skyrocketing, he signed up to promote Gold Promise, a gold-buying
company.
And in 2006, he was in a reality TV show called I Pity the Fool that aired on TV Land.
And, in 2009, he did a voice over for the character Officer Earl Devereaux in the movie
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
On April 5, 2014, , Mr. T got inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame's celebrity wing at the
Smoothie King Center in New Orleans with his acceptance speech dedicated to his mother.
And in 2015 he was in a home renovation show called I Pity the Tool, which aired on the
DIY Network for 6 episodes.
And in 2017 you may have seen him on season 24 of Dancing with the Stars.
Even though he was the third couple to be eliminated finishing in 10th place.
And as of today Mr.T is 66 years old and has three children; two daughters and a son from
his ex-wife Phyllis Clark.
Unfortunately, Mr.T is not close with his daughter Erica Clark, because of her career
path.
Erica used to be a teacher and now she’s a standup comedian and Mr.T didn’t approve.
There is also a young man claiming to be Mr.T’s illegitimate son.
His name is Alexander Taylor and he filed a lawsuit against Mr.T claiming that he walked
out on him because he didn’t fit into his Mr.T image which caused him to become emotionally
unstable and join a gang.
And if you want to keep up with Mr.t you can follow him on twitter @mr.t and facebook @officialmr.t
We wish nothing but the best for Mr.T. And don’t forget to follow us on twitter,
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