Carl Weathers Who Played Apollo Creed In Rocky, Died At 76

Carl Weathers Died At 76

Carl Weathers’ manager Matt Luber confirmed that 76 years old Mr. Weathers who played Apollo Creed opposite Sylvester Stallone in the “Rocky” films died on Thursday.

Carl Weathers had a significant role in Adam Sandler’s movie “Happy Gilmore”. He also starred in the 1987 movie “Predator”. For his outstanding performance as a Guest Actor in the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Significant Contributions To The Hollywood

He also gave a voice-over to Combat Carl in the animated movie “Toy Story 4” and in the next movie, he played a fictionalized version of himself in “Arrested Development”. Carl Weathers played in many other movies and TV like “Close Encounters Of the Third Kind,” “Death Hunt,” and “The Comebacks” and the TV shows “Brother,” “Colony,” “The Shield,” “Chicago Justice” and “Street Justice.”

After his work in “Happy Gilmore” a golf comedy directed by Sandler in 1996, Carl Weather showed up for a short in “Little Nicky” and voiced a certain character in Sandler’s cartoon movie Hanukkah comedy “Eight Crazy Nights”

Mr. Weathers’s Sports life

Carl Weathers was born on 14th Jan 1948, in New Orleans. As he grew up was was actively involved in sports. He played several varieties of sports. His sports include boxing, soccer, wrestling, football, and gymnastics. He was actively playing football during his college at San Diego State University where he helped the Aztecs win in the 1969 Pasadena Bowl.

He was also studying degree in theatre arts while still at SDSU. But in 1970 he joined the Oakland Raiders as a Free Agent and played eight games in the NFL as a linebacker across two seasons.

Carl Weathers moved to the acting profession after his time as a football player. He was serious and committed to acting and landed some small roles here and there like in Arthur Marks’ blaxploitation movies “Bucktown” and “Friday Foster,” as well as TV series including “Good Times,” “Kung Fu,” “Cannon” and “Starsky and Hutch.”

Carl Weathers played Colonel AI Dillon in the movie “Predator” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who later on became the Governor of the state of California. Also, Jesse Ventura, who later became the Governor of Minnesota.

In 1988, Weathers came and led “Saturday Night Life.” After many years, he came back to the live sketch show for a Spoof segment. He said he was running for a political office as he was “the Black guy in ‘Predator.”

Stallone And Weathers Fight

When Stallone asked Weathers for permission to use footage from earlier “Rocky” films for the sixth movie in the franchise, 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” Weathers refused and lobbied for an actual part in the film, despite his character, Apollo Creed, dying in “Rocky IV.” Stallone said no and hired a lookalike actor to shoot flashback fight sequences. The pair reconciled, and Weathers later allowed Stallone to use his likeness in the “Creed” sequel series, in which Michael B. Jordan plays Apollo Creed’s son.

Sylvester Stallone once asked Carl Weathers to allow him to use some of the scenes from the earlier parts of the “Rocky” movie in the franchise, 2006’a “Rocky Balboa.” But, Mr. Weathers denied it and pushed him for a real part in the movie against his character, Apollo Creed, dying in “Rocky IV.” Unfortunately, Stallone refused Mr. Weathers and hired a lookalike actor to shoot for the flashback fight scenes. Later on, both Stallone and Weathers reconciled and forgave one another and Weathers later gave permission to Stallone to use his flashback footage in the movie “Creed” sequel series, where Michael B. Jordan plays Apollo Creed’s son.

Later Part Of His Career

In the later part of his career, he managed to land some small roles in TV series and directed some of the episodes too. Later, he was nominated for an Emmy in 2021 for the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” where he played the role of Greef Kaga in the nice episodes in all three seasons. He then started stepping into the director’s chair for episodes 12 and 20 of the “Star Wars” series.

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Weathers is survived by his former wife, Mary Ann, and his two boys