Martin Laurence's career has been plagued by scandals and borderline behavior, but Martin Laurence has served time and time again. When Eddie Murphy moved to more gentle comedy, Martin Lawrence became the King. The lifestyle took its toll but Lawrence seemed to finally emerging as the comedic presence to be taken seriously in Hollywood.
Lawrence spent the early years of his life
traveling with his mother and Father. His dad was in the air force, so martin's
early upbringing was as an air force brat, shipping out when duty called.
Indeed Lawrence was actually born in Frankfort, Germany on
April 16 1965. He
didn't stay there for long and even his traveling days ended early when his
father left his mother and her six children. The Lawrence family spent the rest
of there childhood in Maryland.
Martin developed an act for comedy early on in an attempt to keep his hard working mom's spirits up. He started developing rutines which he performed when she got home from working as a cashier. His Love of laughter caused some trouble at school. Where he was a class clown and every teachers worst nightmare. At one point Martin even had a running bargain with one teacher that if he kept silent during class, he could have the final five minutes to himself. His comedy rutines were a hit with his other classmates and martins love, was born.
Like alot of other comedians Lawrence got his earliest break McMahon's star search . He did well but the PG act wasn't really what he wanted. So he soon began a much more adult like stand-up act. Martin's NC-17 act caught the attention of producers who were putting together a comedy series and Martin was soon hosting Def Comedy Jam. Small film roles followed close behind including the role in Spike Lee's do the right thing and in Boomer Rang with Eddie Murphy.
Martin's greatest claim to fame though was Martin his long running FOX television show. The show resolved around a music DJ (Lawrence) and his up scale wife (Tisha Campbell). Bill Cosby among others were not fans, but the show won a claim from the NAACP. Martin continued to stand-up during his sitcom Years, and he worked on his film career. He had big hit with Bad Boys, Cost starring Friend Will Smith. He also married Ms. Virginia Patricia Southall in 1995 with whom he has a daughter.
Just when everything was going great things began to deteriorate. Family and friends became concerned with his hyper behavior. After he had a violent outburst on the set of a Thin Line Between Love and Hate, and his family hired a private nurse to look after him and he began psychotropic medicine. Lawrence was reported to be suffering from bouts of paranoia. Then in 1996, he was arrested after getting seen carrying a pistol and screaming at cars on Ventura Boulevard. The next scandal came a few months later and also involved a gun, this time when Lawrence tried to bring an unregistered pistol through airline security.
The greatest blows to Lawrence's reputation were still forthcoming. After the last gun scandal, Lawrence checked into a drug rehabilitation clinic, but left two days later. Lawrence went after his wife and assaulted her, apparently upset the she had given his private nurse a few days off without consulting him first. His wife filed a restraining order against Lawrence and he was forbidden to go near neither her or their daughter. Lawrence served her with divorce papers.
Since Martin went off air, Lawrence has been relatively scandal-free. He has had some big screen success with Nothing to Lose and Life and continues to build as an actor. In late August of 1999, Martin was reportedly hospitalized after slipping into a comma induced by heart stroke, but he recovered normally. As always, his ailments are surrounded by rumors of drug use, but nothing has been confirmed.
Most likely, Lawrence will continue to preserve and build on his most recent Hollywood success with films like Blue Streak and Big Momma's House.
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