Mr. T

Mr. T
Mr. T inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in April 2014
Born	Lawrence Tureaud (1952-05-21) May 21, 1952 (age 64) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, motivational speaker, wrestler, bodyguard, television personality
Years active	1980–present
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)	Mr. T
Debut	March 24, 1985
Retired	December 27, 1994

1980–present

Mr. T (born Lawrence Tureaud; May 21, 1952) is an American actor and retired professional wrestler 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. Mr. T is known for his distinctive African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry, and his tough-guy image. In 2006 he starred in I Pity the Fool, a reality show shown on TV Land. The title of the show comes from the famous catchphrase used by his character, Clubber Lang.

Mr. T was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud, Sr., was a minister. Tureaud, with his four sisters and seven brothers, grew up in a three-room apartment in one of the city's housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes, in a poorly constructed building, in an area with high levels of environmental pollutants and the largest concentration of poverty in America. While growing up, Tureaud regularly witnessed murder, rape, and other crimes, but attributes his survival and later success to his will to do well and his mother's love.

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.

He then enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Military Police Corps. In November 1975, Tureaud was awarded a letter of recommendation by his drill sergeant, and in a cycle of six thousand troops Tureaud was elected "Top Trainee of the Cycle" and was also promoted to squad leader. In July 1976, Tureaud's platoon sergeant punished him by giving him the detail of chopping down trees during training camp at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, but did not tell him how many trees, so Tureaud single-handedly chopped down over 70 trees from 6:30–10:00 a.m., when a shocked major superseded the sergeant's orders.