CARL WEATHERS

(14 January 1948 – 2 February 2024)

Carl Weathers always wanted to be an actor but his first appearance in the public eye was as a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders. It was while playing football for them that he helped the team play their very first AFC Championship game when, in 1971, he was released by the coach for being “too sensitive.” But he was not too sensitive to play the world heavyweight boxing champ Apollo Creed in Rocky (1976), a part he recreated in the first three sequels. When he auditioned for the part, he was asked to read his lines opposite the writer but asked if he could get a better actor to play opposite. The writer, Sylvester Stallone, was impressed, and signed him up to play one of the most famous boxers ever portrayed on the big screen (give or take Rocky Balboa). In Rocky III (1979) Creed and Balboa become friends and now Apollo’s screen son Adonis has taken on the mantle – and the series – as personified by Michael B. Jordan – who, like Stallone, has also turned to directing his character on camera (on Creed III).

Weathers went on to play a defensive halfback in Semi-Tough (1977), with Burt Reynolds, and joined the all-star cast of Force 10 from Navarone (1978) before staking out starring roles in such action fodder as Action Justice (1988), Hurricane Smith (1992) and the TV series Street Justice (1991-93), perhaps appealing more to the public than the critics. He also turned up for three Adam Sandler comedies before cementing his reputation with the next generation by voicing Combat Carl in Toy Story 4 (2019) and playing the High Magistrate Greef Karga in Disney's The Mandalorian (2019-23), getting himself nominated for an Emmy for the latter. He was married and divorced three times and died, aged 76, of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease..

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON