7 of John Hannibal Smith's best disguises from The A-Team

Often times, part of a plan coming together includes a clever, or not-so-clever, disguise from John Hannibal Smith.

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Howling Mad Murdock was the pilot of The A-Team, B.A. Baracus was the muscle, and Faceman Peck the conman. John Hannibal Smith is the clear-cut leader of The A-Team. He comes up with plans (he loves when those come together), tells the team who is doing what and even gets his hands dirty from time to time, throwing away the nickname Hannibal for a wild disguise.

Hannibal has morphed into plenty of disguises to evade the enemy, sneak past the enemy or at times, make fun of the enemy.

Here are just seven of the wildest disguises only Hannibal Smith of The A-Team could pull off.

1. Howling Mad's mother

When B.A.’s mother is being harassed in her Chicago home, The A-Team flies out, at the recommendation of B.A., to help. Part of the plan includes Hannibal portraying an elderly woman, who also happens to be Murdock's mother! Yes, when Hannibal is wheeled in to confront an adversary, he claims to be "Mrs. Murdock," mother to "H.M." and head of an apartment tenant’s committee. With a list of complaints in hand, Mrs. Murdock is about to be thrown out of the office when things get a little heated with gunfire. 

2. Police officer

This time Hannibal screens his and The A-Team's next client by pulling him over as one of LA's finest. Officer Hannibal pulls over the driver because he failed to come to a complete stop at an earlier street. When Hannibal offers to make the ticket go away with a bribe, the driver declines saying, "I'd rather take the ticket." Instead of a ticket, Hannibal hands a note through the window saying "You have just found The A-Team." Officer Hannibal likes an "honest" man, one who doesn't give out bribes!

3. Hot dog vendor

This is the second step of a verfication process Hannibal uses in "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider" part one. He sells a cold hot dog to a potential client and puts further information in a napkin. A previous disguise sends the client to the park in search of a dog at 11:00 a.m. According to Hannibal, he has "a contract with the city" and will be the only vendor in the whole park!

4. Robot

A technology convention, featuring new computers, software and other electronics is the meeting place for The A-Team's next client. Enter "Rocky the Robot," who follows the client into an elevator, taking her to the basement of the convenction center. The rest of The A-Team is waiting, and Hannibal's "elaborate ruse" comes to an end. 

5. B-movie actor

This disguise in an unintentional one, but a disguise nonetheless! By day, Hannibal is trying to make it as an actor. In this B-movie, Hannibal plays this woman, who is about to be attacked by some sort of creature. When Col. Lynch shows up looking for Hannibal, who is ironically using the alias "Lynch", he assumes Hannibal is behind the creature costume. While Lynch and his crew pull the mask off the creature, Hannibal escapes the movie set via motorcycle is this costume. 

6. Golf caddie

Fore! Look out for John Hannibal Smith on the back nine! Hannibal doesn't only use disguises when it comes to screening clients. He uses them to take down targets too! Disguised here as a golf caddie, The A-Team's target has no idea he's about to be captured by Hannibal. With some help from Faceman and Howling Mad, who are holding up the game on the putting green, Hannibal removes his disguise and fires a warning shot to let the target know he bogeyed this hole. 

7. Rock idol Johnny B

Johnny B is on a used car lot, talking to Faceman (who is now a used car salesman) about purchasing 12 stretch limos for his upcoming rock concert. The lavish Johnny B offers to put $50,000 as a down payment to a corrupt dealership owner. This disguise convinces the dealership owner Johnny B has several sold-out shows and a number of back-stage passes waiting for him. After leaving the lot, Hannibal even says to his body guard, "You know B.A., your gold looks really good on me." To which Baracus responds, "No it don't!"

SEE MORE: 9 weapons and tactics only The A-Team could get away with using

You shouldn't be surprised if you see The A-Team using cabbage as a weapon, or spraying soda at hostile enemies.


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20 Comments

Coldnorth 15 months ago
What about the swamp monster. That was my favorite. Face would always have a fresh cigar for him
CaptainDunsel 15 months ago
"Rocky the Robot" was a re-use of the hero costume from "Exo-Man', a 1977 TV pilot rippe... um... "inspired by" Marvel's "Iron Man" character
MrChrisM 16 months ago
How can you not list Hannibal as a barber among the top 10. Using hair dryers combined with barber chairs 💺 and trash bags to make hot air balloon was genius!
Caguas1976ca 16 months ago
The a team Hannibal,merdock,face barakasoh they are the best of the best.
Caguas1976ca 16 months ago
Love the a team my most favorite show ever,I don't miss any episodes I love all of the actors.
tootsieg 16 months ago
So many good disguises. My fave is the hot dog vendor.
dbuelter 16 months ago
I will always remember him in Home From the Hill with Robert Mitchum and Eleanor Parker. He was awesome.
Runeshaper 16 months ago
B-movie actor is hilarious! LOL The Hot dog vendor is not far behind that.
Barry22 16 months ago
Never watched The A-team back in the day due to work schedule. Watch it now when I can, it's really funny at times. I like it.
averagemilnerenjoyer 16 months ago
the best thing about the A-team is the pure obscurity. everything about their plans and disguises are so unrealistic and bizarre. no wonder the military never found them.
Andybandit 16 months ago
Hannibal's disguises are so funny. The A-Team is a good show. The best show that come on 5pm mountain time in a long time.
MrChrisM Andybandit 16 months ago
Can you believe that when it first came on people said it was no good due to violence. I hate to think what they would say about shows on nowadays like Supernatural or Walking Dead
Pacificsun 16 months ago
Some of Hannibal's costumes I don't even recognize him wearing in the episode until takes them off!
Moody Pacificsun 16 months ago
Same here. He had some pretty good ones.
daDoctah Pacificsun 16 months ago
Following in the footsteps of Ross Martin on "The Wild Wild West".
Pacificsun daDoctah 16 months ago
Yes, it's said that Ross Martin worked on those disguises himself. He would sketch them out for makeup/costuming to make them real. But I believe that Ross Martin was also an artist. However, it's been awhile since I've read his bio.
Dario Pacificsun 16 months ago
He was certainly a master of disguises, that's for sure! 😁
daDoctah 16 months ago
Is it just me or does "Murdock's mother" look an awful lot like recent Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider?
Robertp daDoctah 16 months ago
Gotta fund the A-Team somehow.
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