So, first in the series: Mr. T.
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Nodes of Gold #1: Mr. T
Mr. T is an actor, two-time winner of the America's Toughest Bouncer competition, and one-time professional wrestler.
He is best known for playing Clubber Lang in Rocky III (that's two Rocky III references in a matter of days!), and B. A. (Bad Attitude) Baracus on The A Team. Born in Chicago in 1952, he is the 11th of 12 children. His brothers encouraged him to "get big" as a way of surviving his tough neighborhood, and he eventually became a bodyguard for Muhammed Ali, Steve McQueen, and Diana Ross, among others.
His big- and small-screen success led to his becoming a national phenomenon, and he eventually had his own comic book, TV cartoon, and cereal, as well as as his own Shrinky Dink set, which is perhaps his greatest accomplishment.
His tag line, "I pity the fool!," struck fear into the hearts of millions, terrified that they had done something pitiable to Mr. T. He was an outspoken opponent of drug use (sorry, you medical marijuana fans), alcohol (sorry, most of you on both sides of the family, and most of my friends), and just plain being a fool.
In 1995, Mr. T was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoma. Naturally, he's Mr. T, so it was T-cell and not B-cell, and he pities the fool who has B-cell, which means me. Actually, T-cell is much more aggressive than B-cell, but with treatment appropriately aggressive for Mr. T, he beat the disease in 2001, and is now in complete remission.
After Hurricane Katrina, Mr. T gave up his trademark gold chains. He recently appeared in a Snickers commercial in Great Britain.
Also, he's good to his Mom, and thinks you should be good to yours, too.
Congratulations, Mr. T! You've got Nodes of Gold!
(Be sure to click those links, especially the last two, which are just incredible.)
O.K. kids - it's tivia time.
ReplyDeleteSince my brother took so much time to research Mr. T and his you tube vignettes (another good S.A.T. word)- he seems to have overlooked the most important fact -
Mr. T's real name was __________?
no cheating - you can't google it
come on, I know there are plenty of 70's trivia geeks out there like me ?
who's got the answer?
Mike
Someone once asked him what his real name was, and he said "It's Mr. T. My first name is Mister. My middle name is Period. And my last name is T." Then he probably called him a "sucka," though my research didn't include that.
ReplyDeleteBob
wrong, guess again. No poetic license allowed.
ReplyDeleteHey Bob,
ReplyDeleteMy flag football team just got eliminated from the playoffs in the first game, again.
We have a whiny jerk on our team (the Captain!) who behaved so embarrassingly irrational towards the refs during the last 2 minutes of the game that I hurried from the field after the final whistle to disassociate myself from him.
The Mr. T Snickers commercial would have been the perfect intervention. I pity the fool who is the target of a Mr. T. righteous smackdown, he would have put our captain in his place.
The respect mother song was, however, one of the most painful musical experiences that I have ever been subjected to.
Tom
Mike, I cheated.
ReplyDeleteI can see why the guy changed his name. I pity the fool who would stick with the name Mr. T's mamma gave him.
Joe