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.

Tureaud 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. As to the adoption of his professional name, Mr. T., Tureaud stated that this decision 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 the 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." That’s a sign of respect that my father didn’t get, that my brother didn’t get, that my mother didn’t get.