Tyson's Bio

Name: Tyson Craig Beckford

Birth Date: Dec. 21, 1971

Height: 6'2"

Hair: none

Eyes: Brown

Resides: Harlem, NY

Status: He currently had a girl friend---(damn, she's lucky)

Background: Tyson has a Jamacan Father and a Chinese-American Mother

Tatoo's: Tyson has 18 of 'em and his goal is to have more than Dennis Rodman

Where you may have seen him: Doing many underwear and clothing commercials for Raulph Lauren, and in many magazines

An interview with a Magazine in Tyson:

When did you start?

In 1991 I started doing a little free-lance stuff here and
there. Then in 1993, I got into it professionally.
                       
How has modeling changed your life?
It changed my bank account. It changed my address. But it
has not changed me as a person.

What's your strangest modeling experience?
I was on the beach doing an underwear ad in Miami. And
this girl loses her mind and jumps on my back and starts
screaming. The photographer was looking like, "Do you go
through this all the time?"
                        
What's a male model stereotype that irks you?
People think the majority of us are gay. That's not true. But
if it were, that would would be our business.
                        
Do you have a girlfriend?
Yes. (Sorry ladies.)


He stayed home while his model counterparts were
prowling the Paris catwalks, modeling the '96
spring collection. He's usually pretty busy but
decided to sit this one out to make a statement:
There aren't enough black male supermodels, and he
did not want to be a token.

Ralph Lauren certainly didn't see Beckford that
way when they hired him in 1993 to represent his
Polo Sport line exclusively, pushing him into the
modeling stratosphere.

                       The child of a Jamaican
                       father and
                       Chinese-American mother,
                       growing up in Jamaica,
                       and later Rochester, New
                       York, Beckford was
                       involved in gangs, drugs
                       and theft. In fact, he
                       says, he'd likely be in
                       jail or dead today if he
                       hadn't been plucked off
                       the street in 1991 by an
                       editor from the hip-hop
                       magazine The Source.

                       Through that connection,
                       he hooked up with a New York agency, and within
                       months, Beckford was before the lenses of Herb
                       Ritts and Bruce Weber.

                       It was Weber who first brought the model to
                       Lauren, who nabbed him for the company's sport,
                       fragrance and body lines. By 1995, Beckford wason
                       the covers of major magazines, including Paper and
                       Essence and multiple-page spreads in Vogue, GQ,
                       the New York Times and Details.

                       He was named 1995 Model of the Year at the VH1
                       Fashion Awards and one of People's 50 Most
                       Beautiful People. Last year, Beckford made yet
                       another quantum leap--to Hollywood. He began
                       taking acting classes and was up for a role in the
                       film How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

                       Beckford is definitely not waiting tables while
                       waiting for a film career to take flight--he's
                       strutting the New York runways, working on a new
                       exercise video and posing for a series of
                       calendars. Not exactly a day job you want to give
                       up.