[ad_1]
Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed in the first four “Rocky” films alongside Sylvester Stallone, died Thursday, his manager Matt Luber confirmed. Variety. She was 76 years old.
Weathers also starred in 1987’s “Predator” and had a memorable role in Adam Sandler’s “Happy Gilmore.” He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian.”
He voiced Combat Carl in “Toy Story 4” and played a fictional version of himself in a recurring role on “Arrested Development.” His other credits include the television series “Street Justice,” “Colony,” “The Shield,” “Chicago Justice” and “Brothers,” and the films “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Death Hunt” and “The Comebacks.” .”
After working with Sandler on the 1996 golf comedy “Happy Gilmore,” Weathers briefly reprized his role in “Little Nicky” and voiced a character in Sandler’s animated Hanukkah comedy “Eight Crazy Nights.”
Born on January 14, 1948 in New Orleans, Weathers played a variety of sports, including boxing, football, wrestling, and gymnastics. He played football at San Diego State University and helped the Aztecs win the 1969 Pasadena Bowl. While at SDSU, Weathers also earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts, but in 1970 he signed with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent and played eight games in the NFL as a linebacker over two seasons.
After his time in professional football, Weathers turned more seriously to acting, landing small roles in Arthur Marks’ blaxploitation films “Bucktown” and “Friday Foster,” as well as television series such as “Good Times,” “Kung Fu”, “Cannon”. ” and “Starsky and Hutch.”
In “Predator,” Weathers played Colonel Al Dillon alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, who became governor of California, and Jesse Ventura, who became governor of Minnesota. In 1988, Weathers hosted “Saturday Night Live” and, many years later, he returned to the live sketch show for a parody segment in which he announces that he is running for political office on the basis that he was “the black guy from ‘Predator’.”
When Stallone asked Weathers for permission to use footage from previous “Rocky” films for the franchise’s sixth film, 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” Weathers refused and pushed for an actual role in the film, even though his character, Apollo Creed, died in “Rocky IV.” Stallone said he didn’t and hired a lookalike actor to film flashback fight sequences. The couple reconciled and Weathers later allowed Stallone to use his likeness in the “Creed” sequel, in which Michael B. Jordan plays Apollo Creed’s son.
In his later career, Weathers landed smaller roles in television shows and also directed episodes of them. He earned his first Emmy nomination in 2021 for the Disney+ series “The Mandalorian,” in which he played Greef Karga in nine episodes over three seasons. Weathers served as director of episodes 12 and 20 of the “Star Wars” spin-off.
Weathers is survived by his ex-wife, Mary Ann, and their two children.