Carl Weathers became famous as “Rocky” boxer Apollo Creed. Now the American actor and former professional athlete has passed away at the age of 76. Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone (77) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (76) expressed their sadness and paid tribute to their colleague. Manager Matt Luber announced Weathers' death on Friday (local time). According to his family, the actor died “peacefully” in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles on Thursday.
As the boxer Apollo Creed, Weathers starred alongside Stallone in four “Rocky” films (1976 to 1985). In 1987 he co-starred with Schwarzenegger in the action film “Predator”. Prior to his acting career, Weathers was a professional football player.
“It's an incredibly sad day,” Stallone said in an emotional video message on Instagram. Weather was an important part of his career and his “Rocky” success. Stallone mourned the loss of a “legend”. During the “Rocky” series, the characters of Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa (Stallone) were initially arch-enemies in the boxing ring, but later became friends. In “Rocky IV,” Creed is mortally wounded in a boxing match with the giant Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
“Carl Weathers will always be a legend,” Schwarzenegger wrote Friday on Instagram in a photo on the set of “Predator.” He was an “extraordinary sportsman, an amazing actor and a great human being”. In John McTiernan's 1987 sci-fi action thriller “Predator,” they played Vietnam soldiers battling alien creatures in the jungle. Actors Adam Sandler, 57, Dane Cook, 51, and director Robert Rodriguez, 55, also paid tribute to Weathers.
Weathers also appeared in several television productions, including the crime series “The Law of the Street” and the role of a lawyer on “Chicago Justice.” Most recently, he portrayed the character Griff Garga in the “Star Wars” series, “The Mandalorian.”
