Tyson Beckford Was 'Loading My Gun' to Avenge His Brother's Murder. He Turned to Modeling Instead

In the docuseries 'In Vogue: The 90s,' Beckford recalls being caught between the streets and a future in modeling when his older brother set him straight

For Tyson Beckford, modeling once seemed like a "fantasy" far removed from his life growing up in the Bronx.

The model, 53, looks back at his early career in the Hulu docuseries In Vogue: The 90s. Vogue editor Tonne Goodman draws a parallel between Beckford and legendary designer Ralph Lauren, who made him the face of Polo, noting, "What a lot of people don’t know about Ralph is that he actually grew up in a regular, working-class family. He grew up in the Bronx."

Beckford admits modeling wasn't on his radar. He was falling in with the wrong crowd before an opportunity presented itself and changed his life.

“I got into modeling because of my late brother Patrick. I had done a photoshoot with The Source hip-hop magazine. I remember showing him, and he was so excited for me," Beckford says in the sixth and final episode of the series.

"He basically told me to stop being in the street and go be an actor, go be a model, go be whatever you want to be."

Beckford was listening to what his brother was saying and took those words to heart. It would be the last conversation they'd ever have.

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"I remember I got the call at maybe 3 a.m. that he’d been murdered," Beckford shares. "My head was just f----- up. I’m on the subway to go murder the guys that murdered him. I’m loading my gun, and I remember his words as if he was standing next to me."

In that moment, Beckford says, "[It] just dawned on me that this isn’t the life that I want, no. And it basically changed my life. I went from doing bad s--- to turning around and go to auditions and casting.”

The story echoes what Beckford said in a 2021 interview when discussing his brother.

"He was the eldest of the family so for me, he was like my inspiration, my teacher. He was the real gangster of the family, so anything I know, I know from him. He just was like, 'These streets ain't for you man. You've got a talent. You can memorize lines,' " he recalled at the time.

"He saw it in me long before I saw it in me, that I was meant to do the acting modeling thing. He was just like, 'Look, you can handle yourself in the streets, but there's no need for it. Go makes some real paper.' It was his pushing. From that time, on, I just looked forward and left the streets behind."

For Beckford, his star would continue to rise throughout the '90s. In the final episode of the docuseries, he remembers the day he first auditioned for Ralph Lauren.

“One day we got a call for a Ralph Lauren audition. I try not to be too excited, but they have me take some Polaroids without my shirt on," he recalls, adding, "I’m about 20, 30 minutes outside of the casting, and my phone rings and it’s my agent on the line, and he said, ‘Oh my God, you got it.' And I said, ‘The place I just came from? No way.’ After the Polo ads came out and suddenly I’m the face of the brand? That day, that instant, my life changed. People started looking at me very different that day.”

In Vogue: The 90s is now streaming on Hulu.

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