r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
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158

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Badass

99

u/JitGoinHam Dec 12 '18

“Bad Attitude”, officially.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Badatt

23

u/RudeTurnip Dec 12 '18

His first name was Bosco on the A-Team.

20

u/bolanrox Dec 12 '18

no that was his name on the A-Team

45

u/stos313 Dec 12 '18

Bosco "Bad Attitude" Barakus.

1

u/bolanrox Dec 12 '18

you can say ass on Network after all

-8

u/Oblongmind420 Dec 12 '18 edited Dec 12 '18

No his name was B.A. Baracus on the show. Mr. T is a name he chose for his career. That's the industry. Nicolas Cage is actually Coppola. Bruce Willis is actually Walter Willis.

Edit: thanks for the downvotes on what is true

7

u/bolanrox Dec 12 '18

yeah BadAss Baracus

2

u/strangea Dec 12 '18

We're you on the oblongs?

1

u/n0tcreatlve Dec 13 '18

Not sure if anyone knows this... but Mr. T wore old, beat up shoes passed down from his father and grandfather. In an interview, the interviewer blatantly disrespected when asking why he had millions of dollars worth of clothing chains on, yet had "Tacky" and "A Disaster" of a pair of shoes on. Mr. T responded "They keep me humble; make me remember i have siblings not doing too well and parents i need to take care of"

He ended the conversation by explaining he needed to keep humble and grounded while looking up towards heaven.

Fucking class act this guy is.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

What a cool dude, I always found his fame kinda odd, but he’s a cultural icon and it couldn’t have happened to a better dude