Wondering about wild grapes

Friday, February 6, 2015

Wondering about Mr. T.

The last picture on my blog that I posted yesterday was of Mr. T and I thought maybe I would talk about him in more detail today.  Those of you who remembered him from the TV show, The-A Team, know who he was and I bet you even remember his favorite saying, "I pity the fool"?  Now, I wonder how many of you know his real name?  Are you scratching your heads?  I didn't know so I had to look it up.  He was born in Chicago and named Laurence Tero Tureaud.  He was the youngest boy of 12 children and his father, who was a minister, left the family when T was five years old.


In high school, he was a football star and three-time wrestling champion.  So you see, he wasn't all talk and gold jewelry.  After he got out of the Army, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers but an injury to his knee kept him from making the team.  So, he got a job as doorman and bouncer at clubs in Chicago and got the reputation of one of Chicago's toughest and most infamous bouncers.  This put him in contact with celebrities and his outrageous reputation and famous connections got him the job of celebrity bodyguard earning more than three grand a night.  Some of the stars that he protected were Steve McQueen, Diana Ross, and Muhammad Ali.  He worked at this job almost ten years until Sylvester Stallone changed everything by putting him in the movie Rocky III in which he played Clubber Lang.

Then in the 1990's, he started experiencing poor health and was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma.  At age 49, he officially went into remission.  He now lives in Chicago and Albuquerque.  Let me guess, I don't think he stays in Chicago in the winter time.  Would you if you had somewhere else to go.  Of course Albuquerque is at high altitude and I was there at an RV park one year and my water hose froze.  Now don't pity this fool, although I am still trying to beat this case of sniffles and coughing I have had for awhile, instead I want you all have a great day, you hear? 



9 comments:

  1. So... now I know. He'd have to be a big guy to wear all that jewelry... wow! that would weigh a person down! And we've lived just south of ABQ a couple of winters.... but like most high desert, that frost (and sometimes snow) usually melts off by noon. We'll be heading back that way next October for the Balloon Fiesta....

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    1. I wear a cheap digital watch but I do have a nice ring. That is the extent of my jewelry.

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    2. I lost my beautiful turquoise watch band (the watch was cheap, but the band wasn't) in the Pacific Ocean when we were in Costa Rica last year.... made me put a bit of a different perspective on value.... but... darn! I loved that watch band. Now I wear a (very) cheap Timex... tells me the time, but just doesn't have the "pizzazzz" my silver and turquoise band had.

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  2. Thanks for the bio of Mr. T. I have never watched much tv, but I did watch the A-Team mainly because it was so outrageous and because of Mr. T.

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    1. You are welcome. He was quite a character. What he played in the show was more like he really was, than fiction.

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    2. And that is amazing. No wonder he was so good in that role.

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    3. I guess it a lot easier playing yourself on the shows than pretending to be someone else of a fictional character.

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  3. Never knew that about Mr. T...I always thought he was a funny character.

    It has been a very long time since I had heard him even being mentioned. Glad to know he is still alive.

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    1. Since I have been around for over seven decades, it is hard for me to remember that most everyone living today are a lot younger than I am and haven't experienced the things I have. When my Mom would go to town shopping, I would go to the movies and they only cost a quarter to get in. Of course someone had to work a lot longer for that quarter back then than people do now.

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