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Here's the whole story as best I know it, from years of reading every magazine article I could find at the Chicago Public Library. If I don't know something for sure, I left it off. Every stop gets my own personal rating, in gold chains, from o=o (one chain) to o=o o=o o=o o=o o=o (five chains). |
| 1952 |
|
Born Laurence Tureaud on May 21 in Chicago, and grew up in a big family on the
South Side, same as me (well, a few years before me). Later he took the name
Mr. T. The way he's explained it, he wanted anybody talking to him to have to start
with "Mister," as a matter of respect. That's the whole idea of the man right there. o=o o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| BEFORE HOLLYWOOD |
|
He served in the Army as a military policeman. Back home he worked the door as a bouncer
at Chicago clubs and then as a bodyguard for famous people. Then he won a TV contest
to find the toughest bouncer in America, and that's how the movie people noticed him.
Think about that next time somebody tells you a job is a dead end. o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1982: ROCKY III |
|
He played Clubber Lang, the hungry young fighter who takes the title away from
Rocky, and then loses it back to him in the rematch. Everybody I knew walked out of that
theater scared and happy. My cousin Cedric wouldn't take off his boxing gloves for a week.
He's the reason for the famous line about fools, which came from this movie, and which
I'm not going to type out because you already know it. o=o o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1983: THE A-TEAM |
|
The big one. NBC, starting in January 1983. Four Army veterans on the run from the
military police, helping regular people nobody else would help. Mr. T was
Sergeant B.A. Baracus, the mechanic and the muscle. B.A. stands for Bad Attitude,
and he did have one, but only toward bad guys and airplanes. He drove the black van with
the red stripe, built something amazing out of junk every single week, and was scared to
death of flying, so the rest of the team always had to get him onto the plane some sneaky
way. The show ran until 1987. I watched every episode, most of them twice. o=o o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1983: D.C. CAB |
|
A comedy about a Washington taxi company full of oddballs. He played Samson, one of the
drivers. My mother let us rent it and then turned it off halfway, so I have only seen
the first half. Someday. o=o o=o o=o (for the half I saw) |
| 1983: THE SATURDAY CARTOON |
|
He got his own cartoon on NBC Saturday mornings, where he coached a team of young
gymnasts who traveled around solving mysteries. At the end he'd come on in person and
talk to us kids straight. I sat so close to the TV my mother said my eyes would go square. o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1984: THE TAPE AND THE CEREAL |
|
He made a video for kids called Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!, all about
believing in yourself, staying in school, and treating your family right. That same
year there was a Mr. T cereal, little crunchy pieces shaped
like the letter T. I would like it back on the shelves, please. o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1985-86: WRESTLEMANIA |
|
In March of 1985 he teamed up with Hulk Hogan in the main event of the very first
WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden, and they won. The next year at WrestleMania 2 he
had a boxing match against Rowdy Roddy Piper. My uncle had us all over to watch and the
living room floor still has a dent from my cousin Cedric. o=o o=o o=o o=o |
| 1988: T. AND T. |
|
His own detective series, which ran until 1990. It was hard to find on our TV and I missed
a lot of it, which I regret. If anybody taped it, e-mail me. o=o o=o o=o |
| THE 1990s |
|
He still turns up in comedies and on TV now and then, and every time he does the whole
theater cheers. I have seen this happen with my own eyes. Mostly I hope he knows how
many of us grew up doing what he said. o=o o=o o=o o=o o=o (for being Mr. T) |
|
See something wrong? Know something I don't? Tell me at [email protected] and I'll fix it. I'd rather have it right than have it long. |