Carl Weathers, who starred in Rocky films and The Mandalorian, dead at 76
- The actor played the cocky heavyweight boxing champion Apollo Creed next to Sylvester Stallone in 1976, a role that ‘put him on the map’
- He more recently won an Emmy for his role in The Mandalorian, in which he appeared in all three seasons
Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, facing off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator and teaching golf in Happy Gilmore, has died. He was 76.
Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died on Thursday. His family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his sleep”.
Comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in Action Jackson as he was joking around on the small screen in such shows as Arrested Development, Weathers was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976’s Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone.
“It puts you on the map and makes your career, so to speak. But that’s a one-off, so you’ve got to follow it up with something. Fortunately those movies kept coming, and Apollo Creed became more and more in people’s consciousness and welcome in their lives, and it was just the right guy at the right time,” he told The Daily Beast in 2017.
Most recently, Weathers has starred in the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian, appearing in all three seasons.
