Listen up, sucka! It’s Mr. T’s birthday, and I pity the fool who doesn’t extend warm best wishes on this special occasion!
Mr. T was born in Chicago on this day in 1952 as Laurence Tureaud, the youngest of 12 children. A stint in the military led to a failed tryout with the Green Bay Packers, after which he began working as a bouncer and bodyguard, a career choice that would ultimately put him on the path to fame. In 1980, while appearing on America’s Toughest Bouncer (a televised competition he won twice), he was seen by Sylvester Stallone, who picked him to play Clubber Lang, the imposing villain of Rocky 3.
Following that, he appeared in the films Young Doctors in Love and D.C. Cab and earned notoriety for eating world-famous stuntman Super Dave Osborne, but his best-known role came as the big angry mudsucker B.A. Baracus on the hit television series The A-Team, which ran from 1983 to 1987. He also did a turn in professional wrestling, teaming with Hulk Hogan against Rowdy Roddy Piper and “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff in the inaugural Wrestlemania. His career was slowed by health problems, however, including a 1995 diagnosis of T-cell lymphoma.
Gamers too young to remember the angry, aerophobic A-Team commando know Mr. T best as a Night Elf Mohawk who’s pretty handy with computers. He also appeared in a series of truly epic “Get Some Nuts” advertisements for Snickers in 2007, one of which was the subject of a complaint by the U.S.-based Human Rights Campaign; more recently, he loaned his famous voice to the upcoming animated film Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
So quit yo’ jibber-jabber, fool! Wish Mr. T a happy birthday or you’re gonna meet his friend Pain!
