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Mr. T

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Mr. T
Mr. T on a roadsign.
Born
Laurence Tureaud
Height5'10(178 cm)[1]

Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud on May 21 1952) is an iconic actor known for his roles as Sgt. "B. A." Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team, as boxer James "Clubber" Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III, and for his numerous appearances in the WWE and pro-wrestling. He is also well-known for his distinctive mohawk hairstyle and for wearing an excessive amount of gold jewelry. He currently stars in the reality show I Pity the Fool, shown on TV Land; the title of which comes from his Rocky III catchphrase.

Biography

Laurence Tureaud was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest boy of twelve children. He, his four sisters and his seven brothers, grew up in the city's housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes (another famous resident of the Taylor project was baseball superstar Kirby Puckett). He attended Paul Lawrence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy, playing football, wrestling, and studying martial arts. He won a scholarship to Prairie View A&M University, but was thrown out after a year. T also attended a couple of small Chicago colleges on athletic scholarships. After leaving school, T was a military policeman in the U.S. Army before trying out for the Green Bay Packers.

For about ten years, Mr. T was a bodyguard to the stars, protecting such well-known personalities as Muhammad Ali, Steve McQueen, Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, Joe Frazier, The Incredible Hulk, and Diana Ross. He charged around $3,000 a day and his business card famously read, "Next to God, there is no greater protector than I." He always boasts that he never lost a client, saying, "I got hurt worse growing up in the ghetto than working as a bodyguard." A bald-headed, pre-mohawk Mr. T can be seen accompanying Joe Frazier to the ring in Frazier's rematch against George Foreman.

In 1970 he changed his name by deed poll from Lawrence Tureaud to Lawrence "The Bucking Bronco" Tero, and then in 1980, to Mr. T so that people would have to address him as "Mr." He has stated that the period is his "middow name." It was while reading National Geographic that Mr. T first saw the unusual hairstyle for which he is now famous, on an African Mandinka warrior. He decided that adopting the style was a powerful statement about his African origins, and was later surprised to learn that he was actually of Native American and Aboriginal Australian heritage.

During his stint as a doorman, he would take jewelry from disorderly people and wear it himself as a testament to how well he performed his job as a bouncer. At one point, his gold chains, rings, and bracelets were worth about $300,000. It took him about an hour to put it on, and most nights he cleaned it in an ultrasonic cleaner although some nights he slept in it "to see how my ancestors, who were slaves, felt,"[2] despite the fact that slaves would rarely sleep adorned with $300,000 worth of jewelry.

In 1986 Mr. T removed many trees from his mansion in Lake Forest, Illinois, explaining that he "didn't want no trees in (his) mansion." This created a large controversy and led several North Shore communities to enact ordinances making the removal of old growth trees illegal. He also added a large white controversial fence around his property line, which the City of Lake Forest, Illinois forced him to take down.

Mr. T owns a 20-acre ranch in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and spends most summers there.

In 2005, Mr. T announced he would never wear his chains again saying, "No, T, you can never wear your gold again. It's an insult to God." He came to this decision after seeing the effects of Hurricane Katrina. (However, he is seen wearing some chains for several commercial appearances, such as the 2007 U.K. Snickers advertisement). Mr. T also donated a great deal of clothing and money to Katrina victims. In October, 2006 [1] his new reality television show for TV Land, called I Pity the Fool [2] began, in which he assists those in need.

Acting roles and work

An issue of the Mr. T comic book

In 1982 Mr. T was spotted by Sylvester Stallone while taking part in "The World's Toughest Bouncer" contest with Lee Dittrich. His role in Rocky III was originally intended as just a few lines, but Stallone built up the part around the man. His catch phrase, "I pity the fool!" comes from the film, where he played a boxer facing Rocky Balboa in a match. When asked if he hated Rocky, he replied, "I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool."

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 in a cable television special, Bizarre, before accepting the role of B.A. in The A-Team.

In an episode of "Silver Spoons", he played his old role as body guard to Ricky Stratton and explained his name as "First name: 'Mr', middle name: 'period', last name 'T'." In one scene, the classroom erupts with paper balls as Mr. T throws his body in front of the objects, protecting his client.

In The A-Team, he played Sergeant B.A. (Bosco Albert or "Bad Attitude") Baracus, an ex-army commando on the run with three other members from the U.S. government "for a crime they didn't commit." 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."

A Ruby-Spears produced cartoon called Mr. 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 would help them with their training, but they would also help him solve mysteries and fight crime. 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)", (video available here) 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. That same year he released a related rap album titled Mr. T's Commandments.

He 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 World Wrestling Federation, he became a special "WWF boxer," in light of his character in Rocky III and took on "Cowboy" Bob Orton on an episode of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC. This boxing stint ultimately culminated in another boxing match against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2. He returned to the World Wrestling Federation as a special guest referee in 1987, before disappearing from the wrestling world. He reappeared as a special referee for a Hogan-Ric Flair match, seven years later in World Championship Wrestling, in October 1994 at Halloween Havoc.

From 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 getting $15,000 for personal appearances, but 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, coincidentally, T-cell lymphoma.) He still seeks acting jobs and has had small roles in several films. He frequently appears on the TBN Christian television series. 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 advertises the chocolate bar Snickers with the slogan "Get some nuts!"

Mr. T was supposedly enraged when he was turned down from voice over work in the HBO documentary Hookers at the Point - when he was informed that the role had already been given to rapper Ice-T, he remarked mysteriously to the press "Ice-T don't know what Ice-T can't have." The meaning of this is still unknown.

Album

File:MrTs-album-Commandments-1984.jpg
Album cover to Mr. T's Commandments

Mr. T in 1984 released a rap album titled Mr. T's Commandments much in the same tone as his 1984 educational video which instructs children to stay in school and to stay away from drugs. This was later followed up by a second album, the same year titled Mr. T's Be Somebody (Or Be Somebody's Fool), which featured music from the video of the same name.

Singles

Year Title Album US UK
1984 "Mr. T's Commandments" Mr. T's Commandments 75 -

References in pop culture

  • Mr.T's famous phrases are still widely used and celebrated across the internet. They appear as audio files on soundboards such as Razz
  • Mr. T became sort of an Internet icon, when he was immortalized in the Mr. T vs... pages starting with the popular Mr. T vs Superman. There are around 258 "Mr. T vs ....." pages that can be found on the website Mr.T VS. Everything. His adventures have made the transition to Adobe Flash, and can be found on Newgrounds.
  • Mr. T is often referenced in The Simpsons and has even been a guest voice in the episode Today I Am a Klown. He also appears in this series in an episode which featured some "stars from the past". He first appeared as a member of the Stonecutters world council in Homer the Great. He was also mentioned in Deep Space Homer.
  • He appeared a few times on Robot Chicken. One time he appered to try out for acting in a T.V show. The second time he appeared he helped the Foo Fighters fight foos.
  • He was featured in an episode of the animated children's TV show, Alvin and the Chipmunks, in which he helps recover a watch from some neighborhood bullies, "The C Team", similar to The A-Team.
  • On the sitcom Friends in the episode "The One With the Prom Video", Chandler does an impression of Mr. T after Joey gives him a much hated gold bracelet. He calls it "a reject from the Liberace house of crap" and says, "I pity the fool who puts on my jewelry, I do, I do. I pity the fool that..."
  • On the movie "Ali G Inda House" Ali G and his "home boy" Ricky have an argument who is most like B. A. Baracus.
  • He was the subject of a sketch on British comedy show Little Britain and cult show Bo' Selecta!.
  • He was the subject of recurring "The All New Adventures Of Mr. T" sketch on Saturday Night Live by Robert Smigel, in which he and a group of teenagers drive around in a van, à la Scooby-Doo, and have adventures while Mr. T tries to find work.
  • There was a campaign to have Mr. T on LBC, a London-based radio station; all carried out by Iain Lee, a British comedian. Eventually, Iain Lee read out a letter which had been sent by Mr. T's Agent which stated "Mr. T would not like to take part in a local radio station." As a result Iain Lee's LBC producer is no longer using sound bites of Mr. T. [3]
  • Mr. T has also been referred to in the animated comedy, Family Guy, numerous times. In "Fore Father" from Season 2, Mr. T birds appear to a hallucinating Stewie. News anchor Tom Tucker quotes Mr. T in "The Kiss Seen Around the World" saying, "Remember kids, Mr. T says, 'I pity the fool who does drugs.'" The episode "Brian Goes Back To College" from Season 4 is dedicated to The A-Team, as Peter and his neighbors are inspired to form their own version of an "A-Team" and set to "help out the community", after winning a fancy dress competition dressed as them. Peter Griffin's African-American neighbor, Cleveland Brown, sports B.A. Baracus' hairdo, attire, and jewelery.
  • In South Park's third episode of the tenth season, "Cartoon Wars Part I", during the Family Guy parody, Mr. T. sells tea, a reference to his various appearances in the show.
  • In the first episode of the British sitcom The IT Crowd, a picture of Mr. T and the cast of The A-Team can be seen on Denholm's desk, who refers to Mr T. as "jewelery man".
  • British phone directory service 118 118 ran an A-Team-like TV ad, where the 118 118 Men bust through a barber shop and a child is seen with a Mr. T style hair cut and beard he then says "Crazy Fools!" in a Mr. T voice.
  • Channel 4 screened a documentary on the 18 May 2006 where Justin Lee Colins met up with the past members of The A-Team. Mr. T met up with Justin for a brief interview about the 1980s TV show.
  • Mr. T had licensed his image to a food company for a breakfast cereal. During the commercials for his eponymous cereal, Mr. T would use his catchphrase of "I pity the fool who don't eat my cereal!" Mr. T's cereal was famously featured in a scene of the movie Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, in which Pee Wee eats two mouthfuls of Mr. T cereal on his Pancake, while doing an impersonation of Mr. T himself.
  • Californian band The Mr T Experience are named after the man himself, with lead singer Dr. Frank being a fan of the A-team and other 1980s television shows.
  • A radio caller named Emma Lynch won £25,000 after UK's Virgin Radio challenged listeners to submit their all time favorite jokes. It was in reference to Mr T and British Airways: "The last time I went on holiday, I flew with BA. It was terrible. He kept shouting: 'You crazy fool. I ain't gettin' on no plane!'"
  • Virgin Radio UK's 'Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show' included a short lived soap entitled "At Home with Mr T" in 2006.
  • There was a campaign by the UK radio station Virgin Radio to have Mr. T make a phone call into the breakfast show, since their anniversary celebrations coincide with those of the TV-show The A-Team. Cited link
  • In the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Cartoon) episode The Wrong Stuff, an obvious Mr. T parody character called Mr. C appears.
  • A Mr. T-like NPC appears in the RPG EarthBound for SNES.
  • In an episode of Megas XLR there is a giant robot called 'T-Bot' who looks, acts, and talks like Mr. T
  • In several episodes of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, one of the three alien enemies of boy hero Jimmy Neutron is called "T", who has a Mohawk, a gold necklace with a pendant shaped like a letter T, and has sayings like "fool", "I pity..." and "jibba-jabba".
  • Mr.T appears as a janitor in the movie Not Another Teen Movie where he gives advice to a football quarterback.
  • Mr.T appears in a 2007 UK advertisement campaign for Snickers.
  • Mr. T appears frequently on RetroThinking as a guest reviewer.
  • In the Dos game, Simon the Sorcerer 2, Of the Simon the Sorcerer series, A Mr.T look-alike makes an appearance as a prisoner, Captured alongside you in a pirate ship. Simon even refers to him as "That guy from the A-Team", And the Look-Alike occasionally states that he 'Pities the fool'.
  • Mr. T appears in a Juicy Fruit commercial where he screams out "I Pity The Fool!" then eats a piece of Juicy Fruit.
  • Barret Wallace, a character from the video game Final Fantasy VII, is based on Mr.T.
  • Mr.T appears in a 2003 Dutch advertisement campaign for Tikkels ("Hard on the outside, soft on the inside") , where he is dubbed with a North-Brabant accent saying: "Jongens, als ik van jullie een zakje tikkels krijg, bouw ik voor jullie een keigave schommel!" ("Dudes, if you give me a bag of Tikkels, I'll build a really cool swing for you!") [3].

Filmography

Wikiquote has quotations related to Mr. T.

References

  1. ^ http://www.celebheights.com/s/Mr-T-1874.html
  2. ^ http://www.tvacres.com/jewelry_mr_t.htm
  3. ^ Tikkels advertisement to be seen on YouTube (Dutch)
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