Thomas "Tiny" Lister, Jr. was an American actor, voice actor, and retired professional wrestler. For Disney, he voiced Mr. Mussels in Fish Hooks and Finnick in Zootopia.
Lister was born on June 24, 1958, in Compton, California. Ever since his birth, he had a deformed and detached retina in his right eye, causing permanent blindness. He attended Palomar Junior College before transferring to Long Beach City College for his sophomore year. He received a scholarship to California State University, Los Angeles for his natural talent for sports. In his senior year, he won the national shot put title with a mark of over 61 ft 8 in (18.8 m). Lister was the 1982 NCAA Division II National Shot Put Champion. He later pursed acting after school.
Lister was mostly recognized as the antagonist known as Deebo from 1995's Friday and its sequel Next Friday, but Lister has appeared in films, like The Players Club, Posse, The Fifth Element, Little Nicky, The Dark Knight, Austin Powers in Goldmember, Jackie Brown, and Busy Day. He also appeared in television shows, like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Star Trek: Enterprise, Matlock, In the Heat of the Night, 1st & Ten, Perfect Strangers, Martin, Walker, Texas Ranger, Moesha, The Jamie Foxx Show, Step by Step, and The Cleveland Show.
He also appeared in music videos for artists, like Chamillionaire, Ice Cube, Young Bleed's How You Do Dat, French Montana, 50 Cent, and Sublime
By age 55, Lister had type 2 diabetes. Around August 2020, he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and overcame the illness, however, he became ill with symptoms similar to COVID-19 a second time in early December. On December 10, police who were called to check on Lister found him dead in his home. The final autopsy report revealed that the cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
