{"id":41473,"date":"2024-02-02T20:31:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T20:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=41473"},"modified":"2024-02-02T20:31:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-02T20:31:12","slug":"carl-weathers-stared-in-rocky-movies-died-at-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/02\/02\/carl-weathers-stared-in-rocky-movies-died-at-76\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Weathers stared in \u201cRocky\u201d movies died at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action\u00a0movie<\/strong>\u00a0and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the \u201cRocky\u201d movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in \u201cPredator\u201d and teaching golf in \u201cHappy Gilmore,\u201d has died. He was 76.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday. His family issued a statement saying he died \u201cpeacefully in his sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in \u201cAction Jackson\u201d as he was joking around on the small screen in such shows as \u201cArrested Development,\u201d Weathers was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976\u2019s \u201cRocky,\u201d starring Sylvester Stallone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt puts you on the map and makes your career, so to speak. But that\u2019s a one-off, so you\u2019ve got to follow it up with something. Fortunately those movies kept coming, and Apollo Creed became more and more in people\u2019s consciousness and welcome in their lives, and it was just the right guy at the right time,\u201d he told The Daily Beast in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, Weathers has starred in the Disney+ hit \u201cThe Mandalorian,\u201d<\/strong> appearing in all three seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creed, who appeared in the first four \u201cRocky\u201d movies, memorably died in the ring of 1984\u2019s \u201cRocky IV,\u201d going toe-to-toe with the hulking, steroided-using Soviet Ivan Drago, played by Dolph Lundgren. Before he entered the ring, James Brown sang \u201cLiving in America\u201d with showgirls and Creed popped up on a balcony in a Star-Spangled Banner shorts and waistcoat combo and an Uncle Sam hat, dancing and taunting Drago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bloodied Creed collapses in the ring after taking a vicious beating, twitches and is cradled by Rocky as he dies, inevitably setting up a fight between Drago and Rocky. But while Creed is gone, his character\u2019s son, Michael B. Jordan\u2019s Adonis Creed, would lead his own boxing trilogy starting in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers went on to 1987\u2019s \u201cPredator,\u201d where he flexed his pecs alongside Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura and a host of others, and 1988\u2019s nouveau blaxploitation flick \u201cAction Jackson,\u201d where he trains his flamethrower on a bad guy and asks, \u201cHow do you like your ribs?\u201d before broiling him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He later added a false wooden hand to play a gold pro for the 1996 comedy classic \u201cHappy Gilmore\u201d opposite Adam Sandler and starred in Dick Wolf\u2019s short-lived spin-off series \u201cChicago Justice\u201d in 2017 and in Disney\u2019s \u201cThe Mandalorian,\u201d earning an Emmy Award nomination in 2021. He also voiced Combat Carl in the \u201cToy Story\u201d franchise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers grew up admiring actors such as Woody Strode, whose combination of physique and acting prowess in \u201cSpartacus\u201d made an early impression. Others he idolized included actors Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte and athletes Jim Brown and Muhammad Ali, stars who broke the mold and the color barrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many people that came before me who I admired and whose success I wanted to emulate, and just kind of hit the benchmarks they hit in terms of success, who created a pathway that I\u2019ve been able to walk and find success as a result. And hopefully I can inspire someone else to do good work as well,\u201d he told the Detroit News 2023. \u201cI guess I\u2019m just a lucky guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in New Orleans, Weathers started performing in plays as early as grade school. In high school, athletics took him down another path but he would reunite with his first love later in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers played college football at San Diego State University \u2014 he majored in theater \u2014 and went on to play for one season in the NFL, for the Oakland Raiders, in 1970.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I found football, it was a completely different outlet,\u201d says Weathers told the Detroit News. \u201cIt was more about the physicality, although one does feed the other. You needed some smarts because there were playbooks to study and film to study, to learn about the opposition on any given week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the Raiders, he joined the Canadian Football League, playing for two years while finishing up his studies during the offseason at San Francisco State University. He graduated with a B.A. in drama in 1974.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After appearing in several films and TV shows, including \u201cGood Times,\u201d \u201cThe Six Million Dollar Man,\u201d \u201cIn the Heat of the Night\u201d and \u201cStarsky & Hutch,\u201d as well as fighting Nazis alongside Harrison Ford in \u201cForce 10 From Navarone,\u201d Weathers landed his knockout role \u2014 Creed. He told The Hollywood Reporter that his start in the iconic franchise was not auspicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was asked to read with the writer, Stallone, then unknown. Weathers read the scene but felt it didn\u2019t land and so he blurted out: \u201cI could do a lot better if you got me a real actor to work with,\u201d he recalled. \u201cSo I just insulted the star of the movie without really knowing it and not intending to.\u201d He also lied that he had any boxing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later in life, Weathers developed a passion for directing, helming episodes of \u201cSilk Stalking\u201d and and the Lorenzo Lamas vehicle \u201cRenegade.\u201d He directed a season three episode of \u201cThe Mandalorian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers introduced himself to another generation when he portrayed himself as an opportunistic and extremely thrifty actor who becomes involved with the dysfunctional clan at the heart of \u201cArrested Development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Weathers character likes to save money by making broth from discarded food \u2014 \u2019There\u2019s still plenty of meat on that bone\u201d and \u201cBaby, you got a stew going!\u201d \u2014 and, for the right price, agrees to become an acting coach for delusional and talent-free thespian Tobias Funke, played by David Cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weathers is survived by two sons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action\u00a0movie\u00a0and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the \u201cRocky\u201d movies, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in \u201cPredator\u201d and teaching golf in \u201cHappy Gilmore,\u201d has died. He was 76. Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday. His family issued a statement saying he died […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80,54],"tags":[10618,6733,10605,10942,10762,5810,11017,10988,854,8908,8982,10239,10990,10600,5241,10205,5195,2267,920,5455,6496,5247,6397,5918,6601,69,1978,2490,12234,7356,6654,10419,8029,3874,6220,12791,1867,5612,10972,9029,7078,10927,8015,8105,11973,12103,10989,13180,8778,6736,9030,5225,5755,214,9656,10415,36,7560,594,12347],"class_list":["post-41473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-obituary","tag-actor","tag-adonis","tag-apollo","tag-arnold-schwarzenegger","tag-athletics","tag-boxing","tag-canadian","tag-carl-weathers","tag-chicago","tag-coach","tag-combat","tag-comedy","tag-creed","tag-detroit","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-dollar","tag-emmy-award","tag-episode","tag-family","tag-food","tag-football","tag-ford","tag-gold","tag-golf","tag-harry","tag-harry-belafonte","tag-hollywood","tag-host","tag-jackson","tag-jordan","tag-justice","tag-land","tag-lead","tag-love","tag-manager","tag-michael-b-jordan","tag-money","tag-movie","tag-movies","tag-muhammad-ali","tag-new-orleans","tag-nfl","tag-oakland","tag-one","tag-price","tag-rocky-movies","tag-san-diego","tag-san-francisco","tag-school","tag-success","tag-theater","tag-trains","tag-university","tag-wolf","tag-work","tag-world","tag-world-champion","tag-who","tag-writer"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41476,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41473\/revisions\/41476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}