Mr. T

Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud; May 21, 1952) is an American actor.

In 1970, he legally changed his last name to T. His new name, Mr. T., was based upon his childhood impressions regarding the lack of respect from white people for his family:

"I think about my father being called 'boy', my uncle being called 'boy', my brother, coming back from Vietnam and being called 'boy'. So I questioned myself: 'What does a black man have to do before he's given respect as a man?' So when I was 18 years old, when I was old enough to fight and die for my country, old enough to drink, old enough to vote, I said I was old enough to be called a man. I self-ordained myself Mr. T, so the first word out of everybody's mouth is 'Mr.'"

Tureaud attended Dunbar Vocational High School, where he played football, wrestled, and studied martial arts.

While at Dunbar he became the citywide wrestling champion two years in a row.

He won a football scholarship to Prairie View A&M University, where he majored in mathematics, but was expelled after his first year.

After Tureaud left Prairie View A&M, he worked as a gym instructor for a government program in Chicago.

He later said it was here that he discovered a gift for helping children.

After his discharge in the late 1970s, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, but failed to make the team due to a knee injury.

Tureaud next worked as a bouncer at the Rush Street club Dingbats Discotheque.

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 night club after a fight.

A banned customer, or one reluctant to risk a confrontation by going back inside, could return to claim his property from Mr. T wearing it conspicuously right out front.

Along with controlling the violence as a doorman, Tureaud was mainly hired to keep out drug dealers and users.

Tureaud says that as a bouncer, he was in over 200 fights and was sued a number of times, but won each case.

He eventually parlayed his job as a bouncer into a career as a bodyguard that lasted almost ten years.

As his reputation grew, he was contracted to guard, among others, clothes designers, models, judges, politicians, athletes and millionaires.

His clients included celebrities Steve McQueen, Michael Jackson, LeVar Burton, and Diana Ross, and boxers Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and Leon Spinks.

With his reputation as "Mr. T", Tureaud attracted strange offers and was frequently approached with odd commissions, including tracking runaway teenagers, locating missing persons, debt collection, and assassination requests.

While he was in his late twenties, Tureaud won two tough-man competitions consecutively.

The first aired as "Sunday Games" on NBC-TV under the contest of "America's Toughest Bouncer" which included throwing a 150 lb stuntman, and breaking through a 4 in wooden door.

For the first event, Tureaud came in third place.

For the end, two finalists squared off in a boxing ring for a two-minute round to declare the champion.

Making it to the ring as a finalist, he had as his opponent a 280 lb Honolulu bouncer named Tutefano Tufi.

Within twenty seconds "Mr. T" gave the six foot five competitor a bloody nose, and later a bloody mouth.

He won the match and thus the competition.

The second competition was aired under the new name "Games People Play" on NBC-TV.

When interviewed by Bryant Gumbel before the final boxing match, Mr T. said, "I just feel sorry for the guy who I have to box. I just feel real sorry for him."

This fight was scheduled to last three rounds, but Mr. T finished it in less than 54 seconds.

The line, "I don't hate him but... I pity the fool" in the movie Rocky III was written by Sylvester Stallone, who is reputed to have been inspired by the interview.

While reading National Geographic, Mr. T first noticed the unusual hairstyle for which he is now famous, on a Mandinka warrior.

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.

He then enlisted in the United States Army in 1975 and served in the Military Police Corps.

He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III.

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.

He is also known for his distinctive hairstyle inspired by Mandinka warriors in West Africa, his copious gold jewelry, his tough-guy persona and his catchphrase "I pity the fool!", first uttered as Clubber Lang in Rocky III, then turned into a trademark used in slogans or titles, like the reality show I Pity the Fool in 2006.

Tureaud was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children.

He and his four sisters and seven brothers grew up in a three-room apartment in the Robert Taylor Homes.

His father, Nathaniel Tureaud, was a minister.

After his father left when he was five, he shortened his name to Lawrence Tero.