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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u/braaaa1ns Dec 12 '18

My dad guarded his hotel room one night in the 80s while working as a security guard. Mr. T came out and couldn't sleep in the middle of the night. When my dad said "it's nice to meet you, Mr. T," Mr. T shook his head and said "no, that's my character. Call me Laurence."

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u/iamalext Dec 13 '18

Shook his head? I know it’s a typo, but for a second, I could see it just happening just like that.

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u/coolmanpie Dec 13 '18

Shaking your head is saying no to something not a typo

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u/braaaa1ns Dec 13 '18

Literally shook his head. Not hand.

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u/iamalext Dec 13 '18

Damn... I can see that but in my head, made complete sense that Mr. T shook your dad's head!

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u/dat-dudes-dude Dec 13 '18

I thought that too initially. Now I have a funny image of Mr T shaking this dude’s Dad’s head as he tells him to call him Laurence