Laurence Tureaud, professionally known as Mr. T, was born on May 21, 1952, in the tough south side ghetto of Chicago. He was the second to youngest of twelve children, with four sisters and seven brothers, and grew up in the housing projects. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud, left the family when Laurence was just five years old, and his mother, a religious woman, was left to raise the family on a meager $87 a month welfare in a small three-room apartment.
As a child, Mr. T's brothers encouraged him to build up his physique in order to survive in the rough neighborhood. He has often joked that he was bigger than his brothers, who were also quite large. His mother's influence on him was significant, and he has often spoken about the importance of loving one's mother.
In school, Mr. T was an average student, but he has said that he often daydreamed and didn't study much because he had a photographic memory. Despite a brief period of rebellion between the ages of 10 and 12, when he would play hooky, curse, and act tough, he was generally a well-behaved child who worried about how his mother would feel if he ended up in jail.
Mr. T attended Dunbar Vocational High School, where he was a standout athlete, playing football and studying martial arts. He was also a three-time city wrestling champion. He won a scholarship to play football at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, but was thrown out after just one year.
In the world of professional wrestling, Mr. T was involved in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was a tag team partner with Hulk Hogan at the first WrestleMania in 1985, defeating the team of Paul Orndorff and Roddy Piper. He then feuded with Piper, defeating him in a boxing match by disqualification at WrestleMania 2 in 1986. Mr. T returned to the WWF in 1987 as a special guest referee, but disappeared from the wrestling world for several years.
He reappeared in 1994 as a special referee for a Hogan-Ric Flair match, and stayed with Hogan for a few matches before returning to obscurity.
