Mr. T did not had any dreams of stardom in his eyes. Since he was born in a lower middle class family, his main concern was to feed himself and his family. His real name is Laurence Tureaud and he was born on 21 May 1952 in the countryside of Chicago. He is among the youngest of twelve siblings (he has four sisters and seven brothers). The sole bread winner of such a large family was just one person; his mother who only got $87 a month. Mr. T was encouraged by his brothers to build his body as a mechanism of self defense. His brothers, confess Mr. T have a better body than himself. He once said “If you think I'm big, you should see my brothers!"  Since they lived in a rugged colony, one needed a lot of guts and physical power to survive the hooligans.

Mr. T was very attached to his mother from his childhood. Though, he was known as a hardie in the outside world, at home, he was the most well behaved child among his siblings. She has been a big influence in his life. She has taught him to respect others and to protect the weaker. Mr. T says "Any man who don't love his momma can't be no friend of mine.".

At school he was an above average child though he never studied much. "Most of the time", he says, "I stared out the windows, just daydreaming. I didn't study much because I have a photographic memory".  So, even though he did not study much, he always passed in the exams. He completed his schooling from Dunbar Vocational High School. He was an all rounder at school, he used to play excellent football, studied martial arts, and was three times city wrestling champion!

His role in "Rocky III" was originally intended as just a few lines, but after Stallone saw him, he could not resist the tem-ptation ofbasing a part on him. Mr. T also appeared in another boxing film, "Penitentiary 2," and in a cable TV special, "Bizarre,"  and finally got the role of BA in “The A-Team."

Mr. T used to wear a lot of gold jewelry but discarded it after he was diagnosed with cancer. Mr. T is suffering from cancer for the last 10 years."I don't wear gold no more. The gold is in my heart... The gold couldn't save me." says the man.

He got rich by $80,000 a week for his role in the A-Team. Mr T’s ancestors colored people who were treated as body slaves by the imperialist and had clogs hanging upon them. Mr. T wanted to feel the pain they faced and therefore he  sometimes used to sleep with his jewels.  He says he wears them "to see how my ancestors,who were slaves, felt."

He does not bother much about his weight and loves to binge upon junk food.

He loves to do charity work as much as he can. One can spot him in MacLaren Hall, Los Angeles, a shelter for abused children as he says, "There's no telling how many lives you can turn around." Though many would not expect but Mr. T gives full attention to building a good image in front of the children.