Untold Mr. T: I Pity The Fool

The story of how Laurence Tureaud became Mr T, told by the man himself

Year: 2026

Certificate: 15

Watch now on Netflix

From the jewellery to the Mohawk to his trademark catchphrase ‘I pity the fool’, Mr T – aka Laurence Tureaud – is one of the most memorable figures in pop culture. He first appeared on TV in a bodyguard contest, before going onto global fame with The A-Team, but where did he come from?

Mr T sits down to tell his story here, wearing a full-body American flag outfit and looking very much not like a man in his mid-seventies. First up are his formative years in 1960s and 70s Chicago, living in the projects with his seven brothers and four sisters. ‘You gotta be tough. You don’t show no pain,’ he recalls of those days, recounting a story of what happened when his mother was robbed. Tureaud went looking for those responsible with a 12-gauge shotgun and it was then he had his lightbulb moment. He would protect people for a living.

The profile is framed as a superhero origin story for how that moment put him on the path to become a man everyone would know as powerful. Tureaud named himself Mr to stop people calling him ‘boy’ and the film as a whole is a lesson in how things that later feel cartoonish can still be very real indeed. Certainly, Mr T commands respect in every frame here. ‘Next to God, there’s no better protector than I,’ went the line on that early business card. (46 minutes)