Mr. T does one thing on screen: he stands still, glowers and means it. It was enough to frighten us in Rocky III and to amuse us as a cartoon policeman in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; nobody ever asked him for more.
Fi1m perspective
In Rocky III (1982) a bronze statue of the champion is unveiled on the museum steps and a man in the crowd starts shouting. Stallone, directing, leaves him alone to glower, and Bill Butler lights him from above in a bare basement gym so the eyes vanish and only the jaw stays lit. Mr. T had never carried a part before. He does not act in the ordinary sense; he stands there and means it, with Wally Taylor at his shoulder as his manager. When Clubber Lang demands his fight, Rocky's family look frightened, and so were we, because nothing in the frame suggests he is pretending.
He had been a bouncer and a bodyguard before Stallone spotted him in 1980, and a face in the street in The Blues Brothers (1980), and the mohawk, the gold chains and the gravel in the voice were his before a casting director got near them. Clubber Lang made him famous at once, and the line that did it, "No, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool," was his own adjustment to the script. Fame took him straight to television: B.A. Baracus in The A-Team for 97 episodes between 1983 and 1987, with DC Cab (1983) built around him in the same year. After that the acting thinned to voice work, wrestling and guest spots.
What he does is narrow and he does it well. His characters threaten first and look after people second, and the second part is what makes them bearable: Clubber's rage, B.A.'s loyalty to his team, and in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) Earl Devereaux, a policeman who announces his feelings and leaps over cars to express them. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller understood that the voice is funny because the man using it does not know it is, and Earl is the warmest thing he has done. The trouble is that the persona arrived complete in 1982 and nobody, including him, saw a reason to change it. The chains and the catchphrase were sold until the man behind them was a cartoon, and the parts that followed were written for the cartoon.
He has largely stepped back from acting and shows no sign of regret about it. Watch the first act of Rocky III, where the film is his, and Cloudy for the policeman. There is not much else, and he does not seem to mind. Most actors would.
Biography
Mr. T, born Laurence Tureaud on 21 May 1952 in Chicago, Illinois, is an American actor and retired professional wrestler. He is also credited as T and Laurence Tureaud. He began his career as a bouncer and bodyguard before entering entertainment.
He is best known for his role as boxer Clubber Lang in the film Rocky III (1982) and as B. A. Baracus in the television series The A-Team (1983–1987). Other credits include appearances in The Blues Brothers (1980) and voice roles in animated films and series such as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and The Simpsons.
Mr. T is noted for his distinctive Mandinka warrior-inspired hairstyle, gold jewellery and tough-guy persona. His catchphrase "I pity the fool!" originated in Rocky III. In 2006 he starred in the reality series I Pity the Fool.
