February 5, 2024 – Carl Weathers

Last week, actor, director, and former football player Carl Weathers died at the age of 76. Born in New Orleans, Weathers excelled as an all-around athlete in school, involved in boxing, football, gymnastics, judo, soccer, and wrestling.
He played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs. Weathers always considered acting to be his first love and graduated with a master’s in theater arts. After going undrafted in 1970, he joined the Oakland Raiders playing linebacker. He played in 7 games in 1970 and just one game in 1971 before being released from the team. He then played a year with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.
Weathers retired from football in 1974 and began pursuing an acting career. By the mid-70s, he was appearing regularly on TV in shows like Good Times, Kung Fu, and The Six Million Dollar Man. While auditioning for the role of Apollo Creed alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, Weathers criticized Stallone’s acting, which led him to land the role. He’d go on to appear as Creed in the first 4 Rocky films.
Weathers also co-starred in Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler in 1996. Other notable roles include Combat Carl in the Toy Story franchise and a recurring role as a fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom Arrested Development. Most recently, Weathers appeared as Greef Karga in 3 seasons of The Mandalorian. In all, he had more than 80 film and television credits. Learn more here.