Mr. T

He was married to Phyllis Clark with whom he has three children.

In 1995 he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma.

Mr. T was born Lawrence Tureaud on May 21, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, US, to Nathaniel Tureaud, Sr., a minister (Christianity), as the youngest child among eight boys and four girls.

His father left the family when he was 5. Thereafter, he, along with his siblings, was raised by his mother in a three-roomed apartment in the public housing project ‘Robert Taylor Homes’ in Bronzeville, in Chicago’s South Side.

Growing up in a place marked with poverty and pollution, he had beheld heinous crimes including rape and murder as a matter of usual practice. His brothers motivated him into body building to hold up in such environment.

Despite growing up in such surroundings, he came out clean and successful, and he gives all the credit to his mother and to his own determination to do well.

He studied at ‘Dunbar Vocational High School’ and garnered average grades. Recollecting those days, he says, "Most of the time, I stared out the windows, just daydreaming.” However, he excelled in other activities of school that included wrestling, martial arts and football.

In mid-70s, he started working as a bouncer and adopted a new moniker, Mr. T, flaunting a Mohawk hairstyle that he chose after getting motivated by a National Geographic photo of an African Mandikan warrior.

Hired at a night club to check violence and keep drug dealers and users away, he would conspicuously wear gold jewellery left by customers including the banned and misbehaving ones who could come and collect them without going inside.

He was sued many times in his bouncer’s job and each time he won the case. Eventually, he came in contact with several celebrities who were frequent visitors to the nightclub and these connections helped him get a new job as celebrity bodyguard.

In his ten years as bodyguard he worked for individuals from different walks of life including celebrities, bankers, preachers, judges, politicians, athletes and prostitutes with charge per day ranging from $3,000 to $10,000. He would carry a .38 caliber snubnose and a .357 Magnum revolver.

His clientele included imminent personalities like Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Diana Ross and Steve McQueen among others. As his reputation grew he started getting various lucrative yet strange offers including illegal ones such as murder but refused them without any hesitation.