Martin Lawrence

From Harpo's Juke Joint

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Personal Info

Martin Fitzgerald was born on April 16, 1965 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Martin's father John, served in the US military. After his parents split, Lawrence didn't keep in contact with his father. His mother, Chlora, ended up working two jobs, one at Sears, to support her family. One of his siblings, sister Rae Proctor is his assistant and is credited on the Martin show. As well as his brother, Robert Lawrence

Martin was a great boxer as a teenager. He attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School and became a Mid-Atlantic Golden Gloves boxing contender. Although he was a good boxer, comedy was Martin's niche . In school, Martin often poked fun at others during freetime in school, and his teachers would always let Lawrence have a few minutes to tell jokes for entertainment. As a matter of fact, one of his teachers gave him a challenge to start a career as a comedian. So he took on the challenge and went to an open mike night in which he was successful.

Martin had a long serious relationship with Lark Voorhies in which they were engaged but Martin broke up with her on National Television. Martin did get married to Patricia Southall. Southall was a former Miss Virginia from January 1995. Martin and Patricia have one child together, daughter Jasmine Page on January 15, 1996. Sadly, they divorced in September 1996. Martin also has two other daughters born in 2001 and 2003 with whom the mother(s) are not identified.

Career

Lawrence ended up moving to California and started working at the legendary Kings Wood comedy club. While he appeared at the Wood, he won a spot on Star Search. Lawrence did very well making it all the way to the final round but ended up losing the competition. Even though he lost he still got noticed by executives at Columbia TriStar Television. They saw Martin's performance and offered him an appearance on the sitcom What's Happening Now!!; this being his first acting job. AfterWhat's Happening Now!!, Martin had small but memorable parts in various films and television roles before entertainment mogul Russell Simmons personally chose Lawrence to host the new series Def Comedy Jam on HBO. Def Comedy Jam proved to offer Martin great exposure and a huge fan base.

While he was performing in the Def Comedy Jam role, Lawrence appeared in his own sitcom, the hit series Martin, which aired on Fox. The show was a great success and spanned from 1992-1997. Lawrence had a shot to host Saturday Night Live on February 19, 1994, but he made crude remarks on women's hygiene. His monologue was completely deleted out of reruns and in syndication. Because of this, Martin was banned from the SNL forever. After Martin was cancelled, Lawrence started to work on various film projects. He either starred or co-starred in movies with such talents as Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, and Tim Robbins. While some of his films were blockbusters, such as Bad Boys (1995) and Big Momma's House (2000), his salary grew to over $10 million per role. Lawrence continues to work in film, including his new movie Big Momma's House 2 (2006) opening #1.

Martin

In 1992, Lawrence's hit show Martin debuted on FOX. The Martin show was a mixture of silly, physical humor as well as quick witted jokes. Martin played various characters as well as himself.

The most popular character that he played to date was Sheneneh Jenkins. Sheneneh lived across the hall from Martin and always confronted Gina and Pam. Sheneneh never had anything nice to say to anyone. When Sheneneh wasn't moonlighting as the third floor captain, she made a living at her hair salon, Sheneneh's Shonuff Salon as a Weave Technician. Her best friend was Laquita but she was also good friends with Bonquisha (Kim Coles) and Keylolo (Yo-Yo). Sheneneh always claimed that she demanded respect because she was a "laaaaaddy" and that she is looking for a brother who's down but if he disrespected her she would beat him down like he stole something.

Next, Lawrence played his own mother, Mama Payne. Mama Payne disliked gina and always called her a "applehead" or a "he