The mascot of Mr. Clean is so realistic that it is hard not to imagine an “original” person behind it. After all, a man with a bald head and a hoop earring is surely memorable. It is claimed that the inspiration for the mascot came from Yul Brynner’s portrayal of the King from Rodgers and Hammerstein's 1951 production The King and I. While Brynner described himself as "just a nice clean-cut Mongolian boy," people who knew him remember all the stories that he told about himself. To this day, no one knows if he actually fought with Loyalist forces during the Spanish Civil War or worked part-time as a jai-alai player. The realness of the hoop earring and why it was chosen to be part of the iconic mascot remains a mystery as well.