Who is Mr. T

Mr. T was born Laurence Tureaud in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud Sr., was a minister. Laurence, along with his four sisters and seven brothers, grew up in one of the city's housing projects, Robert Taylor Homes.

Tureaud attended Dunbar High School where he played football, wrestled and studied martial arts. 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. After his discharge, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers, but failed to make the team due to a knee injury.

Tureaud next worked as a bouncer. 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 bar/night club after a fight. Mr. T managed eventually to parlay his job as a bouncer into a career as a bodyguard to the stars that lasted almost ten years. He protected well-known personalities such as Muhammad Ali, Steve McQueen, Michael Jackson, Leon Spinks, Joe Frazier and Diana Ross, charging $3,000 per day for his services.

Mr. T 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 WWF, Mr. T became a special "WWF boxer," in light of his character in Rocky III. He took on "Cowboy" Bob Orton on the March 1, 1986 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, on NBC. This boxing stunt ultimately culminated in another boxing match against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2. Mr. T returned to the World Wrestling Federation as a special guest referee in 1987 as well as a special referee enforcer confronting such stars as the Honky Tonk Man.

Seven years later, Mr. T reappeared as a special referee for a Hogan-Ric Flair match, in October 1994, at Halloween Havoc, and then went on to wrestle again, defeating Kevin Sullivan at that year's Starrcade.

Another seven years later, Mr. T appeared in the front row of the November 19, 2001 episode of WWF Raw.

During the intro to Rocky III, Rocky Balboa is shown easily defeating numerous contenders in a montage during which Clubber Lang is shown annoyed at Rocky apparently coasting through his "easy" title defenses. Lang is shown training himself and brutally thrashing other boxers, even resorting to slugging them when they're down or after the bell. He eventually becomes the number one ranked contender. At the end of the montage, Clubber is shown yelling at Rocky's trainer Mickey, goading him to set up a fight between Rocky and himself. Later in the film, Clubber crashes a ceremony in Philadelphia dedicating a statue to Rocky and challenges him. To provoke his potential opponent, he proceeds to make leud comments of a sexual nature toward Rocky's wife, Adrian, prompting Rocky to lose his temper and accept the challenge despite Mickey's protests.

Just before the fight stars, Mickey suffers a heart attack and collapses. Because Rocky is distracted by this, and because of the hand-picked competition he faced previously, Lang defeats Rocky in a second round knockout. Mickey dies shortly thereafter and Rocky is then trained by Apollo Creed, his former opponent from the first two Rocky films. Creed helps polish the Italian Stallion's fighting style. In the rematch with Lang, Rocky defeats Clubber by knockout in the third round.

The Mister T cartoon starred Mr. T as a coach to a gymnastics team with a specific emphasis on members Jeff, Woody, Robin, and Kim. The group traveled the world while becoming involved in and solving various mysteries.

At the beginning of each episode, a live-action introduction featuring Mr. T himself was shown to discuss a brief plot synopsis. At the end of each episode, Mr. T narrates a moral lesson for the kids.

The animated series aired on NBC from 1983 to 1986 with a total of 30 episodes made. The Mister T cartoon was produced by Ruby-Spears.

Re-runs were later seen on the USA Cartoon Express in the late 1980s and more recently as part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late-night programming block.

Mr. T Cereal hit grocery stores in 1984, capitalizing on the success of actor/wrestler Laurence Tureaud's Mr. T Character. Mr. T had become recognizable to most Americans through his roles in Rocky III (1982) and The A-Team (1983-1987). His kid-friendly persona was strengthened though guest appearances on Silver Spoons (1982), Diff'rent Stokes (1983) and Alvin and the Chipmunks (1983).

Mr. T Cereal was a "crispy sweet corn and oats cereal" that tasted somewhat similar to Cap'N Crunch. The cereal pieces were shaped like the letter "T". Commercials for the cereal used the catch-phrases, "Teaming up with Mr T. (Cereal)... It's cool" and "I pity the fool who don't eat my cereal".

Mr. T Cereal made a memorable appearance in the 1985 film, Pee Wee's Big Adventure during a scene where Pee Wee Herman poured Mr. T Cereal over his pancakes and eggs while impersonating Mr. T's signature "I pity the fool" line.

In "The A-Team", Mr. T played Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus (B.A. is an abbreviation of "Bad Attitude"), an ex-army commando on the run with three other members from the U.S. government "for a crime they didn't commit". As well as being the team's tough guy, B.A. was a genius mechanic and he was terrified of flying.

Mr. T was 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".

Hey sucka! Make Mr. T your TomTom voice and pity those fools who try to drive without him. Make no mistake: this is the real deal, and if you think otherwise, we invite you to meet T's friend PAIN!

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Mr. T GPS Voice