[bold music plays]
[mellow soulful music plays]
"Be strong."
"Have I not commanded thee to be strong?"
-[crowd calling] T! T! T!
-Mr. T!
"Be strong."
Y'all parasites and leeches,
get out of here! I wanna be alone!
[Dave Letterman] Please welcome Mr. T.
[audience applauds]
[inaudible]
[Dave] You make an impressive entrance.
You were so frightening
in that motion picture.
Well, the character calls to be hungry.
And I've been hungry all my life.
Mr. T is a cultural icon.
[Mr. T exclaims]
Love it when a plan comes together.
He's in the top ten
most recognizable people on earth.
[announcer] There he is,
bad man himself, Mr. T.
[Terry Crews] The earrings,
the chains, the mohawk.
I said, "This guy
is a real-life superhero."
[announcer] A slam by Mr. T
as Piper goes down. Whoa!
{\an8}[man] Mr. T is one of the unique,
unsung heroes in this country.
[Mr. T] No one's gonna cry.
[man] But as his popularity rose,
everywhere he went,
say, "I pity the fool."
-I pity the fool! Isn't that right, Mr. T?
-I pity the fool!
-[drawstring whirs]
-I pity the poor fool!
[man] Either you have
to remain in character,
or they gonna turn you into a caricature.
So, yes, he is a superhero,
but at the end of it, at what cost?
-Do you have a first name?
-First name is Mister.
My middle name is that period.
-My last name is the T.
-[audience laughs]
[audience applauds on TV]
♪ We're proud, uh-huh, say it again ♪
♪ NBC, we're proud! ♪
[announcer] Now,
the hit Sunday game special
has become a great new series,
Games People Play.
I'll never forget the moment I saw Mr. T.
{\an8}It was on a bodyguard show
where they featured Mr. T
amongst other bodyguards
that were competing
for the best bodyguard in the land.
And I saw this man,
and it changed my life forever.
[announcer] The bouncer's challenge here,
"Go break up the fight
on the other side of the club."
-Here we go.
-[bell rings]
[moody music plays]
{\an8}[Crews] I'll never forget him
slamming through a door…
{\an8}and crushing this door.
{\an8}The way he looks!
{\an8}The mohawk, man. I was like, "Who…? How…?"
"Where did he come from?"
I-- I said, "Is he American?"
I didn't even know. I thought--
At first when I saw him, I thought,
"Is this an African warrior?"
Hi, I'm Mr. T. Chicago's Dingbat's…
[Mr. T] It's true. I was not born Mr. T.
{\an8}I was born Laurence Tero.
{\an8}People know of me, but they don't know me.
They don't know
the-- the road I had to travel.
[serene music plays]
I have seven brothers and four sisters.
{\an8}We moved to the Robert Taylor Projects.
Just packed poor Black people
on top of each other.
We was poor "financially,"
but we had each other.
{\an8}My brothers, they would teach me
what's required of me as a young brother.
I got to protect my-- my sisters.
I got to protect my mother.
You gotta be tough.
You don't show no pain
'cause you gotta be able
to hold your own in the hood.
So me and my brothers did exercise.
Brother be holding my feet,
I'm doing sit-ups.
We would do push-ups.
We would climb trees
and pull up on the branch.
By the time I got to high school,
they thought I had weights in the house.
{\an8}[man] If you look
at the story of Black America,
{\an8}there's so many people
that come from these situations.
When you're a young kid coming up in that,
{\an8}and you see
that generation of non-mobility,
it shapes the way you think.
He was one of the ones
who was able to compartmentalize,
as a young individual,
about what he felt it was gonna take
for him to get out of here.
My mother was a housekeeper.
I wanted to take the pressure off of her.
So I moved downtown
'cause I said, "I gotta be
where the money's at."
"I gotta be
where the moving and grooving is at."
I started as a janitor.
I worked hard at it.
Then I got a job at some hotel.
And then, get a third job.
I'm working a job
on the weekend in security.
{\an8}I'm saving my money.
{\an8}Start at the bottom. Work your way up.
So I'm living downtown,
but my mother
is still back in the projects.
Then I got some bad news.
[tense pulsing music plays]
My sister called every brother.
Called me last.
Told me what happened.
[telephone rings]
My mother,
she had got the welfare check, cashed it.
Some th*gs,
they watched her coming back in.
So one got on the elevator with her
on the first floor.
[elevator bell dings]
-Another guy get on on the second floor.
-[elevator bell dings]
[elevator whirs]
So they're riding up.
Then they stick the elevator…
-[rumbles]
-…and it stopped.
[alarm bell rings]
One of the guys said…
"Give me your money, b*tch,
or I'll cut your throat."
[clicks tongue]
They shouldn't have done that.
They should not have done that.
I had a pump shotgun, 12 gauge.
[mimics g*n c*ck] Put it in my car.
Drove down there.
The guys were hanging downstairs.
I said, "Hey, man, my mother got robbed.
You know anything about it?"
"No, man, I don't know nothing."
Bang! Knocked the guy's teeth out
with the butt of the g*n.
[clicks tongue] I said,
"Don't lie to me, MF. You know something."
"I'mma k*ll you for not knowing nothing."
Guy has got to know
we're going to bring the heat.
We coming.
And after a couple of days,
found them one at a time, you know.
And, um…
[music intensifies]
I had to do what I got to do.
I was, like, insane.
Like an out-of-body thing,
thinking about my mother,
seeing her shaking there.
You know why I felt real bad?
'Cause I wasn't there to protect her.
You know, I could be like a magician,
make people disappear.
I was born for that moment.
I'm that shield.
My job is to protect you
from whoever come near to try to do harm.
[TV announcer]
So despite the ravages of time,
our heroes will prevail.
And who knows? Perhaps we need
all of the heroes and all of the villains.
In the real world, you know,
it's sometimes difficult
to tell who's what.
[Mr. T] That's when it hit me.
I'm gonna become a bodyguard.
[Jackson] Facing the inhumanity
that they're given to deal with,
superheroes create their own survival.
And the origin story of Mr. T
set him up to become a superhero.
[Mr. T] As a Black man
growing up in white society,
I watched my father being called "boy."
And then I watched my brother,
who came back from Vietnam,
being called "boy."
{\an8}[mellow soulful music plays]
{\an8}I self-ordained myself Mr. T.
{\an8}So the first word out of everybody's mouth
would be "Mister."
{\an8}That's a sign of respect
my father didn't get.
{\an8}So when they're addressing me "Mr. T,"
you're addressing my father, my uncle,
my brothers, and other Black men
who came up from the ranks,
who was disrespected.
If you respect the man, respect the name,
you'll address me as Mr. T.
So I had a business card that read,
"Mr. T, Bodyguard Extraordinaire."
{\an8}[Mr. T reading]
{\an8}Mr. T used to work there.
{\an8}He used to be a bouncer or a doorman,
whatever he prefer.
{\an8}But his job was to scare people
and intimidate 'em.
And it worked. He did the job well.
[intriguing music plays]
[Mr. T] Dingbat's Disco,
that was the nightclub that I worked at.
{\an8}I cut all my hair off.
I started wearing the suits.
Before I had money,
I wanted to look like money.
When you come into my establishment,
"Hey, welcome to Dingbat's. Come on in.
You come to the right place."
We are jamming. The music's jumping.
I'm boogying a little bit.
At the same time,
a lot of celebrities come to Chicago,
perform concerts,
and they needed backstage security.
So, word of mouth.
That's how I got to start
bodyguardin' Michael Jackson.
And I got a lot of celebrities.
[reporter 1] Leon Spinks.
The name almost brings
a smile to your face.
{\an8}[reporter 2] The 24-year-old Spinks
takes on Bobby Smith,
{\an8}and in the fourth round, decks him.
{\an8}[reporter 3] Spinks qualified
for tomorrow's bout
{\an8}with two minutes of expl*sive punching
in Monte Carlo.
{\an8}[reporter 4] There's no question,
Ali had his eyes on Leon Spinks.
[reporter 5] Leon Spinks,
with a record of 6-0-1,
is set to take on Muhammad Ali
for the heavyweight championship
of the world.
The oddsmakers have Ali
as the overwhelming favorite.
{\an8}[tense music plays]
{\an8}[Mr. T] Muhammad Ali. He was my hero.
I remember when they tried
to draft Ali for the Army.
You won't even stand up for me in America
for my religious beliefs.
And you want me to go somewhere and fight,
but you won't even stand up
for me here at home.
[Mr. T] And the thing
that really made Muhammad Ali my hero
is when he said,
"I have no quarrel with the Viet Cong."
"They never called me n*gg*r."
It took a man to say that
during those times.
I wanted to be like Muhammad Ali.
And I liked what he was about.
Then, in February 1978,
Leon Spinks beat Muhammad Ali
for the title.
[in-ring announcer] The new heavyweight
champion of the world, Leon Spinks!
{\an8}[TV announcer] One of the greatest upsets
{\an8}in the history
of the heavyweight championship…
[pulsing music plays]
[Mr. T] So Spinks had a tour,
and he came to Chicago.
They asked me,
"Would you like to bodyguard him?"
I said, "You got it."
I'm like, "I'm working for the guy
who beat the stuffings out of my hero."
So he had an exhibition
against this Italian guy
at a big amphitheater
on the south side of Chicago.
Spinks busted the guy's nose.
{\an8}Then the people in the audience,
they got mad and started throwing stuff.
And my instruction was,
"Leon can't get hurt."
So the trainer said,
"You got to get him out of here, T."
So I'm fighting, punching. Bang, bang!
I was supposed to be in just a short time,
just to protect him while he's in Chicago.
But when they saw me in action,
Leon said, "You with us now."
[host] For those of you
who do not know who Mr. T is,
he is Leon Spinks's personal bodyguard.
[past Mr. T] I worked in
the security field for a couple of years,
and, uh, the other guys that I protected,
nobody really knew
that they was rich except me.
But Leon is-- is a lot different.
You know, he's sort of like a politician.
He go out to, uh, shake people's hands
and things like that.
So I gotta be careful and watch
whose hands he's shaking,
what the person have in his hand.
One mission, keep my eyes on the prize.
It's like, people come--
If I'm bodyguarding you,
somebody come up, "Hey, Mr. T."
I say, "Excuse me, brother,
you're blocking my view."
When I say how seriously I took it,
I didn't have no girlfriend at that time!
I didn't want nobody saying,
"I love you, I love you!"
That'd mess up my psyche.
I don't want nobody to be close to me,
'cause I was a loner.
[gentle music plays]
[woman] I was born Christmas Eve, 1977.
Phyllis Clark and my dad went
to Dunbar High School together.
A couple years later, they had my sister.
{\an8}I feel like things didn't start
till I was born, though, so… [laughs]
[music turns cheerful]
In those first few years of my life,
my parents, they were seeing each other,
but not living together.
My dad really focused on his own career.
Yeah, that's what my dad taught me,
extreme determination.
Just like Ol' Man River, old man Rocky
just seems to keep rolling along.
[reporter 1] Even as we speak,
millions are battering down box offices
across the United States.
[reporter 2] About 2,000
Sylvester Stallone diehards
waited outside, but when Stallone arrived,
Philadelphia let go
a certain kind of love.
I owe it to the people of Philadelphia,
the spirit, the ingenuity, and the heart.
[people cheer]
At any rate,
we'll see Rocky III before too long.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Stallone] I was looking
for a nemesis for Rocky,
'cause you're only as good
as the villain, you know?
If you fight a weak villain,
then it's no victory.
I thought, this time,
"Wouldn't it be interesting
to take a real fighter
and bring him into the film
{\an8}and just teach him
how to act a little bit?"
{\an8}I had seen him on Games People Play,
{\an8}and I heard so many stories about,
you know, this guy and that and whatever,
{\an8}how he was brutal, and so on and so forth.
{\an8}He had this look,
and everything started to click.
[telephone rings]
[Mr. T] Casting director called me.
Hello.
She told me that they wanted me
to audition for Rocky III.
They sent me the script.
I was supposed to have
a Jamaican accent from New York.
So I bought some reggae albums,
I bought some Harry Belafonte,
learned how to talk Jamaican.
{\an8}♪ Day, me say day-o ♪
♪ Daylight come… ♪
And she called back, she said,
"Sylvester Stallone told me to tell you,
forget the accent,
forget the Jamaican stuff."
"He wants you to be you, Mr. T,
Southside slugger from Chicago."
[slaps hands]
I said, "I got this now."
[bold classical music plays]
Then within a-- a couple weeks,
they flew me out
to audition in Los Angeles.
[Stallone] Well, he came in,
and the man was completely at ease,
very shy as a matter of fact.
He did the audition.
He's the only one who did the audition,
all without the script.
[Mr. T] He gave me the-- the script,
he said, "Want to look at it?"
I said, "I already studied.
I'm ready to roll."
Then he said, "Action."
I said, "Balboa, you're just like
all the other white champions."
"You get the title,
you don't want to fight no brother."
"Matter of fact, I'm tired
of waiting on the contract. Ah!"
Then I grabbed him, hugged him.
I still wasn't sure
because this is Rocky III.
Like, it's got to be perfect.
So I asked him to ad-lib.
I said, "Just talk about your life."
And I said, "This character, Clubber Lang,
it's like hot coals burning inside of me."
"I've been Clubber Lang all my life. Ah!"
He said, "Stop, stop."
He said, "That's it."
[train horn blows]
[brakes squeal]
I went home that weekend.
[telephone rings]
She called me Monday morning.
Said, "Guess what, you got the part."
[dreamy pulsing music plays]
[reporter] Sylvester Stallone climbed back
into the ring recently in Los Angeles
to meet the press,
signaling the start
of the filming of Rocky III.
And then he introduced his new adversary
for this last in the Rocky films,
Laurence Tero,
who makes his motion picture debut
in this movie as Clubber Lang.
[Stallone] He's immense enough to believe
that he could be
that kind of world heavyweight champion.
He's instinctual. He gave us,
far and away, the best readings,
even better than, uh, professional actors,
and that's what sealed it.
[man] I got introduced
to Mr. T by my sister.
She used to cast a lot of his movies.
{\an8}I was his agent for 44 or 45 years,
somewhere in that neighborhood.
And in Hollywood, having a client
that long is almost unheard of.
When I first met Mr. T, he was very quiet.
And you would ask him a question,
and he'd go, "No. Yes."
You know, it wasn't the blustery T
that he became.
But you could tell that he had a charisma
and something inside that you can't buy.
[Mr. T] So he said,
"We're gonna train for two months."
-[man] That's good. Come on.
-[Stallone grunts]
[grunts]
[both growl]
One, two.
[Mr. T] Then we go
through the choreography of the fight.
Jab, jab, left, right.
Turn my neck, take the punch.
All that stuff.
'Cause the camera gonna be behind us,
so when he throw a punch,
I gotta be like… snap my neck,
make it look like a hit.
And then, think back,
and I remember when I was in the theater
watching Rocky I, Rocky II,
and I was rooting for-- for Rocky
to beat Apollo.
-[crowd cheers]
-[announcer] I don't believe it!
And here I am.
Now they want me to fight Rocky.
[mock groans]
[trailer announcer]
…and introducing Mr. T.
[dramatic music plays]
Rocky III, an American tradition.
[reporter] With Rocky III
making its premiere run in Philadelphia,
you could feel the electricity in the air.
[fans cheer]
[Crews] No one believed
that Stallone could beat him.
Out of all the Rocky movies, you gotta go…
"There's no way." [laughs]
[dramatic music intensifies]
[grunts]
[Clark] It seemed like the entire world
saw the movie over the weekend.
He was able to make it into something
that I don't think
he could have even predicted.
Nobody can beat me!
You tell him what I said!
And he's next! I'm gonna get him.
[Jackson] His character in Rocky III
scared the sh*t out of white people.
But when he came off-screen,
they became more afraid of him
than they were watching him onscreen
because they're like,
"Oh, he's not acting."
Please welcome Mr. T.
-Mr. T.
-Mr. T.
{\an8}[grand classical music plays]
{\an8}[Jackson] He's not
that comfortable Black dude.
{\an8}Oh, I saw a little smile. [laughs]
Just a little bit. That's enough.
"I'm not gonna soften my voice.
I'm not gonna soften my tone."
"I'm not gonna soften my message…
to make you understand what I'm saying,
how I'm saying it,
and what it's supposed to mean."
Before we get started,
{\an8}you were so frightening
in that motion picture.
{\an8}Uh, and, uh… Have you acted before,
{\an8}or was that just you
we were watching there?
Well, the character calls,
uh, to be hungry,
and I've been hungry all my life,
so it wasn't a problem.
That's why I wear these combat boots,
because it's symbolic of my struggle.
I was born in the ghetto
and raised on welfare,
so that's what, sort of,
the character was about.
[Dave] Can I ask you about your hairstyle
and your jewelry and so forth?
[Mr. T] I'm glad you brought that up.
The hairstyle is not punk rock.
It's not Mohican Indians. A lot of people
relate it to the Mohican Indians.
That's all they know.
There's a tribe in Africa
that calls themself the Mandinka Warriors.
They wear their hair in this fashion,
wear feather earrings,
they wear diamond, gold.
They wear the finest there is,
and I am proud to be
a descendant of the people.
-Mm-hmm.
-That's the reason why I wear this.
The chains in gold
is symbolic of my struggle,
because my ancestors,
we was brought over here,
we were shackled by our wrists
and our necks and ankles,
but I turned those shackles into gold,
and that offends people.
People ask me, they say,
"Do that gold get heavy?"
Nobody asked my ancestors,
do the old chains get heavy on their neck.
Mm-hmm.
When we saw Mr. T be that person
without a script in front of him…
[uplifting classical music plays]
…I think T spoke
with a sense of authenticity,
spoke to you,
but spoke for us
in a very similar manner that Ali did.
[Crews] I saw
that Letterman interview. Live.
I don't get involved
in no Black exploitation movies,
no dope dealing movies,
no pimp roles, things like that.
And I tell them if they want me
in other movies,
give me a type of role
you'd give Charleston Heston.
Give me a-- a Moses parting the Red Sea
in The Ten Commandments.
Give me a Ben-Hur,
because I am talented enough
to play them type of roles.
And I went, whoa!
Whoa!
I never saw anybody do anything like that.
[Young] Because that movie was such a hit,
he was sought after by a lot of people.
But I was concerned. I didn't--
You know, where would he fit in Hollywood?
What next would happen?
♪ Say it again, NBC ♪
♪ We're proud… ♪
[Mr. T] The president of NBC,
Brandon Tartikoff,
he says, "I want you to create a series
on this guy, Mr. T, with the mohawk,
where he's driving a car,
a bus, or something."
[adventurous music plays]
"Then we'll build
some other people around him."
{\an8}Then they brought in Faceman,
Dirk Benedict,
{\an8}Murdock, Dwight Schultz.
Hannibal, George Peppard.
{\an8}I was the only guy
who didn't audition for The A-Team.
[narrator] Maybe you can hire the A-Team.
[g*n firing]
[adventurous music continues]
We beat up the Fonz, we beat up Magnum.
{\an8}Don't be a wimp,
and watch The A-Team. Tuesday.
Then we started kicking 60 Minutes' butts.
We was number one.
Like they say,
we love it when a plan comes together.
…when a plan comes together.
[Mr. T] B.A. Baracus,
he's tough, he's strong.
Very intelligent.
How much time do we have?
[Mr. T] I'm fixing everything,
I had to be smart.
{\an8}[B.A.] I think I can rig something up.
[suspenseful music plays]
[Young] Once The A-Team exploded
is when the boisterous T
just came out more.
Yeah.
{\an8}[Clark] It came on on Tuesdays,
because on Wednesdays,
every boy in my class
would be imitating my dad.
I remember saying, "Oh, that's my dad,"
and like nobody on planet Earth
believed me. [laughs] So…
[Young] The network, they gave him
a Saturday morning cartoon show.
He was just the hottest guy on television.
[Jackson] Before Mr. T showed up,
there were no Black dramas on TV.
None.
[narrator] Everybody loves Webster.
[Jackson] America's purpose for us
through the lens of television
was, "You Negroes
are good for 30 minutes."
What's happenin'?
[Jackson] And for jokes.
That's it.
So when you have somebody
like a Mr. T as B.A. Baracus,
there's a sense of pride
to see a Black person in those spaces.
Would you like to be my friend?
[Crews] I was very, very proud
to see him in that show.
To me, nobody else in the show mattered.
It just didn't.
[Clark] My dad ended up
coming up to school once,
and like the entire school came outside
taking pictures and stuff like that.
That was the moment in my head
where I was like,
"Oh, this is someone famous."
Thank you. Thank you
for waiting to see me. Let's have fun.
I still even thought
it was a Chicago thing.
-Thank you for coming to see me.
-What do you say?
We went to London
and we went to all these countries.
{\an8}We went to, uh, Amsterdam,
and we were in a helicopter,
and they couldn't land the helicopter.
[people cheer]
{\an8}We came here to see you.
We love to see you.
{\an8}Please don't rush us and harm us.
It was absolutely nuts.
{\an8}[announcer 1] I'm pumped up,
I'm pumped up.
WrestleMania is taking place right now.
And there he is, the incredible Hulk Hogan
with bad man himself, Mr. T.
[Mr. T] Me and Hulk Hogan,
we met each other doing Rocky III.
[crowd jeers]
I'm coming after you, Balboa.
[Mr. T] He was Thunderlips.
[yells]
[Hogan] I met Mr. T on the set of Rocky.
{\an8}During that time,
we bonded and became friends.
And that kinda parlayed
into all the appearances on The A-Team,
which kinda led us into dragging him
into the wrestling ring. [chuckles]
This was the first WrestleMania.
The electricity in The Garden
was off the chain.
[moody music plays]
[Mr. T] He had knew that I was
a wrestling champ in high school,
but that's different
than the stuff on the thing.
[announcer 2] Mr. T giving a welcome
here to the multitudes.
{\an8}[Hogan] From being
ex-athlete turned celebrity,
{\an8}it was really cool to see Mr. T
finding his roots again.
{\an8}[announcer 1] Mr. T looks in great shape.
Hogan looks in great shape.
{\an8}[announcer 2] You can hear
the fans chanting, "Ali, Ali,"
{\an8}for whom I consider the greatest
heavyweight champion in the world.
[Mr. T] And to have Muhammad Ali there,
that was something, man.
[announcer 1] The fans are chanting,
"T, T, T."
[crowd] T! T!
[announcer 1] Oh!
[announcer 2] Piper now goes
behind quickly,
takes him down to the canvas.
Oh, nice fireman's carry
as Mr. T hoists up Piper.
What's he going to do with him?
Oh! Drops him like yesterday's newspaper.
Unbelievable! Pandemonium here
in The Garden.
[announcer 1] The crowd loves
Hulk Hogan and Mr. T.
[announcer 2] He's saying,
"We're number one,"
and you betcha you are. Mr. T.
[past Mr. T] How are you?
How are you? Good, good.
{\an8}[Peter Jennings] And what happens
when you team up Mrs. Reagan and Mr. T?
You get the A-Couple, of course.
And that's what happened
at the White House today.
[Mr. T] So Nancy Reagan hear about me.
She said, "Wow, I want to kick off
my new program, Just Say No."
"And Mr. T will be good for that."
{\an8}Say no to drugs and say yes to life.
Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds
and all them guys, eat their heart out.
-[laughs]
-Yeah, Mr. T is here.
All right.
Oh, wow! Now that'll start some scandals.
-[all laughing]
-Now! Uh-huh!
So I call home to my mother.
I'm-- I'm like talking low. I said,
"Mother, I'm here in the White House."
"I meet the president tomorrow."
And my mother said, her sweet self,
she said, "You be good now, you hear?"
[Reagan] Well, I'd like
to thank you, too, for coming
to the second annual
White House Tennis Tournament.
I'm sure you all know
how much it means to me.
[Mr. T] When I'm saying what's special…
Here this kid from the hood,
Robert Taylor Projects,
who they said wouldn't be nothing.
{\an8}[gentle music plays]
{\an8}-I hear you've been playing tennis.
-How are you doing, sir?
{\an8}Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you.
[Mr. T] Man, what an honor.
That was special.
Now, as Mr. T shifted…
Now you got the picture?
Take it from him to get the best start…
From a branding standpoint,
Mr. T sold Mr. T to America.
More beef, better taste?
Okay, fool, it's good.
[Jackson] Yes, he is a superhero,
and people need to hear and understand
his story and his struggle.
But at the end of it, at what cost?
[Young] In his stardom,
he did expect
to be treated better and better.
{\an8}When he became extremely famous,
if he had an appearance,
"I only will go if they send me
a white stretch limo."
"I want, uh, bottles
of Calgon Bouquet by the bath."
[announcer] It's like
no other bath experience.
{\an8}Calgon, lose yourself in luxury.
And if it wasn't the right way,
it would be, uh, disrespectful to him.
[Clark] During those years,
I would say my dad was out of town a lot.
We either were visiting him out there
or he'd come back home.
{\an8}But he didn't want a job to pay his bills.
My dad wanted to be rich.
[past Mr. T] I like to shop.
When you have money, that's important.
Don't never go shopping without no money.
[Young] There have been projects
which I think were certainly worth doing
that he had blown the deal
over moneys, not enough.
Yeah, I think he does sabotage.
They're hollering about Mr. T now.
And a couple, uh,
maybe less than a year ago,
they would see me and say,
"Look at that wild-lookin' ******
with a funny haircut,
with the junk round his neck."
Don't ask me no,
"Hey, Mr. T, how about going to lunch?"
I can buy the whole restaurant now.
When I needed lunch,
they wouldn't take me.
[Young] I believe season 1 and 2,
everyone was getting along.
It was called The A-Team,
they were really a team.
But George Peppard was always jealous of T
'cause of the fame.
{\an8}T and I are-- are, uh, certainly brothers
{\an8}in, uh, some very real spiritual sense.
Then it was the third or fourth season
when George was very insulting to him.
Should it-- Should it ever occur
that he was somebody else
with that body of his,
then I would use a g*n on him.
[reporter and Mr. T laugh]
And, uh, T wanted off the show.
[tense music plays]
T was very unique,
and I think right time,
right place, right everything
fueled the fire to make him hot.
And then, um, the fire kind of dwindled.
[character] I like what I became
these past few weeks,
and I ain't never going back
to being what I was before. Never!
["Battle Hymn of the Republic" plays]
[Young] There were
a couple movie projects that T did
that, in retrospect,
maybe he shouldn't have done it.
We're here because of the money.
I'm not here for art.
I'm here for the money.
I need money. My children need money.
They need new shoes.
My mama need a fur coat.
I can say to the world,
"Hey, this is me. I am woman."
{\an8}He was great up until the point
at which he bailed out on our set
{\an8}four days before he was done sh**ting.
I'm like, "T, what-- what are you doing?"
He's like, "I'm done, I'm done."
I'm like, "But no, you're not done."
"Actually, it's like another week
of sh**ting."
[man] I don't think we'd ever want
to believe that Mr. T was a great actor.
Mr. T was a personality.
I got a new show on NBC,
and it's called The A-Team.
You better watch it, 'cause if you don't,
I'mma come over your house
and make you watch it live with your mama.
[Jackson] As his popularity rose,
everywhere he went,
"Say 'I pity the fool.'
Say, 'I pity the fool.'"
"Make that the tagline.
Make that the tagline."
-[drawstring whirs]
-I pity the poor fool.
I pity the poor fool.
[Jackson] And what comes
with that tagline, comes money.
You should be drinking
Mr. and Mrs. T's Bloody Mary mix.
I pity the fool that doesn't drink it!
I pity the fool! Isn't that right, Mr. T?
I pity the fool.
What would happen
if E.T. and Mr. T had a baby?
-"I pity the fool who doesn't phone home."
-[audience chuckles]
[Jackson] You have to make a choice
when you're Black,
especially when dealing with
a certain amount of fame and popularity.
-Rapping is a way of saying knock, knock.
-[children] Who's there?
Me. Open the door
and listen to what I got to say.
[sweeping music plays]
[Jackson] Either you have
to remain in character,
or they're gonna turn you
into a caricature.
How would you like to be
the star of Hill Street Blues?
What part would I play?
The street.
Keep talking.
For us, as Black individuals,
we feel the brother that came
into this game representing us,
and we feel the brother we lost
in the course of doing this.
Mr. T, do you want to stay an actor?
Is that what you want to do?
No, I-- This is--
Like I said, God is using me.
This is a channel for me to reach people.
People need inspiration
from a guy like me, strong and defiant.
See, I am loved and hated
by the same people for the same reasons.
[Young] And then there was squabbling,
and I think there was just jealousies
about money.
T, I guess, would have hoped
that they were one big happy family,
and those relationships
took different manifestations,
you know, along that path.
[man] Well, he had some dough,
but the-- the rumor that I heard
is that he owed a lot of money in taxes.
Oh, really?
I know there were a couple of guys
trying to sue him.
And then it came time
to, "Okay, we're looking for work,"
and then it stopped.
[Letterman] My first guest, uh,
makes his acting debut
in Rocky III, and if you've seen the film,
you know that he isn't
an easy guy to forget.
If you haven't, you'll soon see why.
Please welcome Mr. T.
[audience applauds]
[Mr. T] I'm not just some phony,
fake, you know, celebrity or whatever,
some fictitious hero.
I'm real life, real life,
and it took me a while
to understand who I really am.
[somber introspective music plays]
or something on my ear,
and then about six months later,
just some bumps broke out on my back.
So I went to the doctor.
Then about a week later,
he told me, "You have cancer."
He said it's in the blood.
It's-- It's, uh, a rare form of cancer.
T-cell lymphoma.
[heart monitor beeps]
And I started the chemotherapy.
I remember when I would go to hospitals,
and I would tell the kids,
"Don't give up.
It's okay to be a-- a little frightened."
I-- I don't want to lie to you,
and, like, say,
"Okay, because I believe in God,
everything is good."
That's a lie.
But cancer put everything in perspective.
Because if I haven't made an impact,
all I am is just an old entertainer.
Like the old minstrel show.
[groovy music plays]
You're just good for entertainment.
What impact have I made on society?
That's what it's all about.
{\an8}He always had an inherent drive
to be something and to do something.
[mellow jazzy music plays]
[Mr. T] I had heard
of Pastor Hardy on the radio,
Saturday mornings, back in the '70s.
I said, "Who is this minister?
I like what he's saying."
Bless you, bless you, bless you.
What's up, T?
Pastor Hardy. Pastor Hardy,
thank you, thank you, thank you.
When T joined
the Cosmopolitan Community Church,
he was cool in his way.
He didn't have
the kind of superheroic dynamics
of Mr. T that we know now.
He got out of the inner city.
But once he became successful,
he never forgot where he came from.
[Mr. T] My calling is more
than being on TV.
God has blessed me. For what?
To make more money,
to buy material stuff? No.
{\an8}He asked me to be a blessing to others.
[intercom bell dings]
{\an8}[woman] Every kind of-- of movie
or iconic role is represented here
{\an8}this weekend for Fan Expo Dallas.
[man] Fan Expo Dallas
is a pop culture celebration
between the fans and their heroes.
The cast of Back to the Future
is going to be with us.
Mr. T from The A-Team is going to be here.
Very rare appearance.
For many years,
I was hesitant in signing autographs
because I don't want to get complacent.
I don't want to get c*ck.
I don't want to think
that I'm all that and a bag of chips.
[gentle hopeful music plays]
-[man] Good morning.
-[Mr. T] How y'all doing? God bless you.
God bless you.
It's not just a run-of-the-mill,
I'm just going through,
shaking hands and making money.
Let me give somebody
some… some inspiration,
give somebody some motivation.
Some gonna want to hear,
"Mr. T, could you just give me
a quick little prayer?"
"Let me know God loves me."
I'm getting… I'm getting emotional now.
I've got to stop.
[sighs]
-Thank you, brother. Thank you, man.
-Thank you. I love you.
-Thank you, man. Thank you, brother.
-I love you, my brother in Jesus.
Oh, bless you.
Bless you. Bless you.
-[woman] He wants to stand up.
-Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
It's therapeutic for me and them.
[inaudible]
I pity the man
who don't cry and let it out.
Because men go, uh,
"I'm tough. I don't cry."
That's a fool. That's a fool.
[man] Thank you.
-Let me hug you, brother.
-Thank you.
-Bless you, man.
-Bless you.
God is good. It took me
-Twenty years. Thank you.
-Thank you, man. I appreciate that.
And I'll do my very best
never to let you down.
Thank you.
Oh, brother! B.A.! B.A. is here now.
Yeah! [growls]
-There we go. I thank you.
-Thank you, brother.
Thank you, man, for the love.
{\an8}Man, this is the man.
That's my son right there.
{\an8}-Oh, is it?
-Yeah. Yeah. Can't you tell?
{\an8}Yeah, how handsome he is. [laughs]
-I see the likeness.
-Yeah?
-[all laugh]
-Yeah, I see it.
I'm still praying,
still trying to do the right thing.
-After what you went through?
-Exactly. It was a test!
-It was a test of my faith.
-No, I mean George Peppard.
[both laugh]
{\an8}[hopeful music continues playing]
{\an8}I remember I was in class,
and I was looking out the window.
I drew a picture of my father,
my brothers, and I drew my mother.
It was her in the rocking chair
because she'd been working so hard
scrubbing floors.
I came running home. I said,
"Mother, mother, look what I've done."
I said, "Mama, one of these days,
I'mma be big and strong.
"I'mma buy you a beautiful house, Mama,
and I'mma buy you pretty dresses."
And she hugged me and said,
"If that's the Lord's willing."
I never dreamed of being a movie actor
or somebody famous.
Now I'm here. Now I've got to do
what I promised my mother.
{\an8}I'm in position now.
{\an8}Because you remember,
she come from Alabama.
When my mother was a little girl,
they used to pick cotton.
Now her son is able to do this here,
so you can't do nothing but cry.
Lake Forest, in the suburbs
where my mother used to scrub floors.
I bought the big mansion.
Had rooms in there for the family.
Everybody can come in.
I said, "Mama, we got an account."
"When money need to be drawn
to pay something, it's done."
"You just enjoy."
And she just cried, cried,
said, "Wow, I can't believe it."
"Just promise me, son,
you'll keep believing in God."
-[VCR whirs]
-[static crackles]
[Mr. T] …get a good education.
Get 'em off drugs.
So what better way
to get my message across
than on the movie screen,
on the TV screen?
-[Letterman] Mr. T.
-[audience applauds]
[Mr. T] It's important that I come back,
and it's my turn
to take care of my family.
It's my turn
to give money back to the community.
It's my turn to feed hungry people.
[funky music plays]
I am here.
All right, you know what I want?
Can I have four thighs and two legs?
Ali, Aretha.
Probably wondering why
my picture's not here.
Didn't want to give 'em one. [laughs]
I said, "I don't need one."
I said, "People, they know I'm here,"
you know, so…
People in the neighborhood.
-[shutter clicks]
-That's why I love this place.
Being back home with my people.
You don't become great just for yourself,
but you become great to enhance
and advance the lives of others.
[past Mr. T] Growing up
on the welfare system in the ghetto,
people always been telling me
that you can't make it.
Whatever your situation is today,
don't let nobody tell you
what you can't be tomorrow.
[crowd cheers]
When he had the public eye,
and he had all the attention,
there was a message, there was
something great that you could learn.
He used his power for good.
[Clark] People always want
to know what it was like
growing up with Mr. T as a dad. And like…
[Clark] Even though he probably
wanted me to stay at home,
he influenced me to go for this.
[people laugh]
This was before The A-Team.
There was no money involved, right?
To me, my dad's legacy
is that anything is possible.
One day you can be
a bouncer at a nightclub,
and the next day you could be
on a number-one-rated TV show.
I love my dad for that.
I love him for making dreams believable.
Truthfully, if we go by my resume,
I wouldn't be here.
I had-- Shucks!
I only done two, three movies.
I'll bust you up.
Did Rocky and D.C. Cab…
So if it's the last thing I do,
I'mma get these kids away from you.
…The A-Team and had a little cartoon
and a couple commercials.
{\an8}Get some nuts!
{\an8}-This is--
-Dial 1-800-COLLECT.
{\an8}And if you get Aim now…
[Mr. T] One guy said, "Mr. T can't act."
And I jokingly told him, I said,
"I know I can't act. You know I can't act.
Don't tell everybody." [laughs]
But what really have I done?
I can't be satisfied with this here.
-[man] The A-Team was my favorite show.
-Thank you, man.
You know we love it
when a plan come together.
You were in the best Rocky ever.
Let me tell you that.
-Thank you. I'm honored.
-I respect you. My grandma loves you.
That's why I pity the fool. [laughs]
I'll continue with my own mission.
"…right spirit within us."
"Teach us to love one another
like you love us."
"Teach us to forgive one another
just like you forgave us."
Happy Easter, everybody. Happy Easter.
Mr. T is a son of God.
Mr. T is a determined man.
Mr. T is a good brother.
[funky music continues playing]
[mellow soulful music plays]
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