![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stallonezone.com\/zone\/2024\/z020224rip_carl_weathers.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Carl Weathers died peacefully in his sleep on February 1, 2024.\u00a0 He was 76.<\/p>\n
Carl Weathers attended St. Augustine High School in New Orleans, Louisiana on an athletic scholarship.\u00a0 Mr. Weathers was an athlete who excelled in football, boxing, gymnastics, soccer, wrestling and judo.\u00a0 At San Diego St. University, Carl Weathers played defensive end for the Aztecs football team.\u00a0 As an undrafted free agent, Mr. Weathers was picked up by the Oakland Raiders in 1970 to play linebacker.\u00a0 When he was released the following year, he headed to Canada where he played for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League.\u00a0 In the off seasons, Carl Weathers returned to the states to earn a earned a bachelor’s degree in drama.\u00a0 In 1974, Mr. Weathers retired from football to pursue a career in acting.<\/p>\n
Carl Weathers’ first feature film role was uncredited.\u00a0 He played a demonstrator in Magnum Force<\/em>.\u00a0 Mr. Weathers’ first television role was as a jealous husband in an episode of Good Times<\/em>.\u00a0 Carl Weathers breakout role was as Apollo Creed in Rocky<\/em>.\u00a0 He would return to that role three more times.\u00a0 Other of Carl Weathers’ signature roles include: Fortune Dane in Fortune Dane<\/em> (1986); Colonel Al Dillon in Predator<\/em> (1987); Jericho Jackson in Action Jackson<\/em> (1988); Adam Beaudreaux in Street Justice<\/em> (1991); Hampton Forbes in In the Heat of the Night<\/em> (1993); Chubbs in Happy Gilmore<\/em> (1996); Joe Clark in The Shield<\/em> (2003); Combat Carl in Toy Story 4<\/em> (2019) and Greef Karga in The Mandalorian<\/em>.\u00a0 Although he would alternate throughout his career acting in feature films and television roles, Carl Weathers also branched out as a director and producer.<\/p>\n Television appearances of Carl Weathers include: Good Times; Kung Fu; S.W.A.T.; The Six Million Dollar Man; Cannon; Switch; McCloud; Starsky and Hutch; Barnaby Jones; The Streets of San Francisco; The Defiant Ones; Fortune Dane<\/em> (6 episodes); Tour of Duty<\/em> (9 episodes); Street Justice<\/em> (44 episodes); In the Heat of the Night<\/em> (28 episodes); The Shield<\/em> (2 episodes); ER; Brothers<\/em> (13 episodes); Chadam<\/em> (3 episodes); Psych; Arrested Development<\/em> (4 episodes); Toy Story of Terror; Regular Show<\/em> (2 episodes); Colony<\/em> (7 episodes); Chicago Fire<\/em> (2 episodes); Chicago PD<\/em> (4 episodes); Chicago Justice<\/em> (13 episodes); Magnum PI<\/em> (2018); Law and Order: Special Victims Unit; Star vs the Forces of Evil<\/em> (10 episodes) and The Mandalorian<\/em> (9 episodes).<\/p>\n Feature film appearances of Carl Weathers include: Magnum Force; Friday Foster; Rocky; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Semi-Tough; Force Ten from Navarone; Rocky II; Death Hunt; Rocky III; Rocky IV; Predator; Action Jackson; Happy Gilmore<\/em> and Toy Story 4<\/em>.<\/p>\n Projects that Carl Weathers directed include: Renegade; Silk Stockings<\/em> (8 episodes); Pensacola: Wings of Gold<\/em> (2 episodes); 18 Wheels of Justice<\/em> (3 episodes); Sheena<\/em> (5 episodes); Hawaii 5-0: The Last O.G.<\/em> (2 episodes); Law<\/em> & Order; Chicago Med<\/em> (2 episodes) and The Mandalorian<\/em> (2 episodes).<\/p>\n When I think of his career, of course his role as Apollo Creed first comes to mind. Sly Stallone posted a touching tribute to Carl Weathers tonight that spoke to his importance in making Rocky<\/em> a success.\u00a0 Part of what Sly Stallone said:\u00a0 “We lost a legend yesterday. My life was forever changed for the better the day I met Carl Weathers. Rest in power and keeping punching.”\u00a0 My favorite Carl Weathers story occurred when he auditioned for the role of Apollo Creed.\u00a0 Mr. Weathers was told that the writer of Rocky<\/em> would be reading with him.\u00a0 As the audition continued, Carl Weathers felt he wasn’t doing well.\u00a0 He told the producers, “I’d do better if I was reading with a real actor.”\u00a0 Sly said he knew right then Carl Weathers was the choice to play Apollo.<\/p>\n Although it only ran for six episodes, I was a fan of Carl Weathers’ Fortune Dane<\/em> series.\u00a0 I’ve been planning to seek it out for a re-watch.\u00a0 The same could be said for his feature film Action Jackson<\/em>.\u00a0 Of course everyone loves his role in Predator<\/em> and I’m no exception.\u00a0 Anything that Carl Weathers was in was better because of him.<\/p>\n I was truly surprised by Carl Weathers’ death.\u00a0 He was always in shape and appeared to be the picture of health. Some celebrity deaths hit harder than others.\u00a0 Carl Weathers death was like a head-on car crash.\u00a0 In addition to his acting, directing and producing, Carl Weathers will be remembered for his positive attitude.\u00a0 He focused on the good in people.\u00a0 He was humble and appreciative of his fans.<\/p>\n Our thoughts and prayers go out to Carl Weather’s family, friends and fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Carl Weathers died peacefully in his sleep on February 1, 2024.\u00a0 He was 76. Carl Weathers attended St. Augustine High<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,54,57,49,65,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-movies","category-rip","category-sports","category-trivia","category-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35109,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108\/revisions\/35109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}