The world received a sudden knockout over the passing of Carl Weathers, who died yesterday at the age of 76.
Weathers is known for his role as Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky films, where his character gave Philadelphia club fighter Rocky “The Italian Stallion” (Sylvester Stallone) a shot at the heavyweight title. As we all know, Rocky went the distance in the first one and finally won the title in the 1979 sequel. Three years later, Apollo helped Rocky regained both the “Eye of The Tiger” and the belt back from Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Sadly, Apollo Creed was killed in the ring by Russian Ivan Drago in the fourth installment back in 1985, but Rocky avenged his former foe turned the friend: a man called “the best”.
Weathers also had prominent roles that included 1987’s Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger. A year later, he became ActionJackson. He starred in the syndicated action series StreetJustice (1991-93), and was a regular on In The Heat of The Night (1993-95) and NBC’s ChicagoJustice in 2017.
Weathers is currently in a Super Bowl commercial that is loosely based on his character in the 1995 Adam Sandler comedy HappyGilmore.
He is survived by his two sons from his first marriage to Mary Ann Castle.