The star of The A-Team and Rocky III is less than impressed with the new Netflix documentary made about his life. Why the focus on his hard-man screen persona and not his long-standing belief in Jesus? Tim Bechervaise takes a look at the man behind the myth
I’m no marketing expert but calling the documentary about your life that you’re meant to be promoting “garbage” is probably not the smartest move. But then again, Mr T is not one for going by the book – unless it’s the Bible, that is, which he quotes at almost every opportunity.
If you don’t know who Mr T is, you’ll likely know the four-word phrase he’s famous for: “I pity the fool.” It’s so synonymous with him that the title of the Netflix documentary released this week is called Untold Mr T: I Pity The Fool.
It appears Mr T might well pity the fool who sits down to watch it, because in a fascinating interview with The Guardian, he doesn’t hold back from criticising Netflix for how he’s portrayed, saying it focuses more on his hardman persona and the controversies around him rather than the real Mr T.
Mr T is a passionate and devoted follower of Jesus – as the Christian-emblazoned t-shirts he tends to wear for interviews suggest. Among his complaints about the documentary is the mere 30 seconds airtime given to his pastor in the final cut, and the lack of attention given to his charitable endeavours (which explains why he spends much of the Guardian interview listing them).
So, who is the real Mr T?
Spiritually rich upbringing
Born in Chicago as Laurance Tureaud, he officially changed his name to Mr T to avoid being called “boy”, as male members of his family often were. Aged five, his father, a minister, left his mother Willie to raise their twelve children alone. Alongside scrubbing floors for the rich to earn a living, she also instilled strong Christian values in her children which Mr T has never lost. “We were poor financially but rich spiritually,” he told TBN. Even as his own fame and wealth increased, all he’s ever wanted to do is “buy her a house and pretty dresses”.
Mr T was christened as a child but, wanting to do things on his terms, he was baptised again in 1977, aged 25, when he fully understood the Christian faith. Years later, in 1995, he cites the Bible in helping him overcome a long battle with cancer. “My faith was tested like Job,” he told Fox News. “I believed in God when cancer come to me. Now when I speak, I speak with authority because I’ve been there.”
He added, “Mr T been to chemo, Mr T been to radiation, hair fall out… but he’s back. Now I can give hope when I go to the hospital, see the sick kids with cancer, tell them, don’t quit…I serve God.”
The cancer scare marked a shift in Mr T’s faith and vocation, focusing more on preaching than entertaining (although, with Mr T, the two aren’t always mutually exclusive). He wants to communicate the “power and promise” of Christianity, and whether speaking at churches, on Christian TV or to national newspapers, and he does so at every opportunity.
The real Mr T
Over the years, Mr T has also gained a reputation for extensive work with prisons, homeless centres, youth clubs and other charitable organisations. While filming Rocky III, in which he played Clubber Lang and uttered his famous line, his pastor encouraged him to find a place to help people. He did just that, serving at various homeless shelters. In 2005, after helping the relief effort in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina, he stopped regularly wearing his heavy gold jewellery, feeling it was disrespectful to those who’d lost so much.
Today, he says he’s in a position to turn down lucrative offers to return to the big screen, saying: “I’m doing what my calling is. The money I made allowed me to have this free time.”
Mr T is a passionate and devoted follower of Jesus – as the Christian-emblazoned t-shirts he tends to wear for interviews suggest
A further hint to what faith means to Mr T is in his seven earrings – three in one ear, four in the other. The three represent the trinity and the four point to the Gospels. Together, they make seven, the most sacred number in Judaism, signifying completion, a theme woven throughout the Bible.
To the entertainment world, Mr T’s identity is still wrapped up in the personas made famous by his roles in Rocky III and the A-Team. Sadly, that doesn’t quite equate with how Mr T sees himself, most notably as a child of God. For Netflix, a documentary about that simply doesn’t sell.
But even without the documentary, Mr T is clearly impacting people in far deeper ways that any screen role ever will, pointing them to Jesus. Amid his rather amusing frustrations with the streaming platform, I pray that he will draw some solace from that.
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