Carl Weathers

Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor. Weathers first played small parts in two blaxploitation flicks, Friday Foster (1975) (in which he played “Yarbro””) and Bucktown (1975) (playing “”Hambone””), both made in 1975 and directed by Arthur Marks. However, his big break came the following year when producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff chose him to play “”Apollo Creed”” in the blockbuster “”sleeper”” Rocky (1976) (real-life boxing legend Ken Norton was originally signed for the part, but it eventually went to Weathers). He went on to play “”Creed”” in three other “”Rocky”” movies, and the characters’ adversarial relationship eventually evolved into a warm friendship. After Creed’s death in Rocky IV (1985), Weathers met with producer Joel Silver and agreed to play an important supporting role in Predator (1987), an action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The following year, Silver produced Action Jackson (1988), a first starring role for Weathers, but it performed poorly at the box office and was panned by the critics. During the 1990s, Weathers starred in four In the Heat of the Night (1988) two-hour TV specials that were much better received by critics and viewers alike. In 1996, he played the part of “”Chubbs Peterson”” in the blockbuster Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore (1996). He returned to his “”action roots”” in two TV-movies with Hulk Hogan: Assault on Devil’s Island (1997) and Assault on Death Mountain (1999). In addition to his acting career, Weathers is also a member of the Big Brothers Association and the U.S. Olympic Committee, handling the career of athletes of various sports such as gymnastics, wrestling, swimming and judo.”

Movies

Action Jackson

Jericho “Action” Jackson is a Detroit police sergeant who was demoted from lieutenant for almost tearing the arm off of sexually violent sociopath Sean Dellaplane, whose father is Peter Dellaplane, a major car manufacturer. But Dellaplane himself is violent as well. Dellaplane kills his wife Patrice by shooting her. And…

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Rocky

Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a…

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Fun Facts

Played college football at San Diego State University. One of his teammates was Fred Dryer. Coincidentally Fred Dryer starred in Hunter (1984) which was originally going to also be the title of Predator (1987), which starred Carl.

One of the original actors that auditioned for the part of Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993).

Before his career as an actor, he was a professional football player.

During his professional football career, he played for the Oakland Raiders and a Canadian Football League squad.

Played for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League from 1971 to 1973. Played linebacker in 18 games and wore #55.

His most famous character, the flashy boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky films, was loosely based on Muhammad Ali.

College football coach at San Diego State was College Football Hall-of-Fame coach Don Coryell ("Air"").

Graduated from San Diego State with a degree in theater arts.

Took drama classes with Donna Pescow.

Currently assisting the US Military with simulated Iraqi villages at Fort Irwin

Quotes

My first love was acting. I went to Sidney Poitier films as a kid. I sat in the theater and dreamed of being an actor.

I've made some films for the military that are teaching things like cultural awareness and leadership issues, that sort of stuff. And try to, in essence, look at what training they're doing and say, 'This is how you can improve the training from a humanistic point of view.'

I've been fortunate. I've worked in a lot of things where I had those kinds of experiences with actors who were perceived as very macho guys, everybody from Lee Marvin to Charlie Bronson to Harrison Ford to Robert Shaw.

I really try to take care of myself. I really put forth the effort to make a regimen just a part of my life. When I can't, for instance if I'm in a location someplace and I can't work out because of the schedule of the picture or whatever it is, as much as I normally do when I'm home, I still do something.

When I start to get that few pounds, which I try to monitor, then I just pull back. So it's really just being conscious.

I majored in theater at San Diego State. My one eye was on football, and my other eye was on Hollywood.