On Friday afternoon, the second day of Black History Month, we all received the horrible news that Carl Weathers had passed away in his sleep at the age of 76.
Everyone took to social media to express their feelings over Weathers’ passing, including Sylvester Stallone.
“Today is an incredibly sad day for me,” said Stallone on IG. “I mean, I’m so torn up I can’t even tell you. I’m just trying to hold it in because Carl Weathers was such an integral part of my life, my success, everything about it. I give him incredible credit and kudos, because when he walked into that room, and I saw him for the first time, I saw greatness, but I didn’t realize how great.
“I never could have accomplished what we did with Rocky without him. He was absolutely brilliant. His voice, his size, his power, his athletic ability, but more importantly, his heart, his soul. It’s a horrible loss. He was magic, and I was so fortunate to be part of his life. So, Apollo, keep punching.”
Weathers is best known as Apollo Creed from the iconic Rocky films, where he played the brash boxing champion who gave Rocky Balboa, a local Philly fighter, a title shot in the award-winning 1976 film that launched the legendary series.
He appeared in the first four films in the franchise, where Apollo split his two fights against Rocky, helped the Italian Stallion train to fight Clubber Lang, won their secret third fight and became family with the Balboas before heartwrenchingly dying in the tragic fight against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in 1985’s Rocky IV, a moment when we all cried over the fallen champion.
While that was his biggest and most famous role, Weathers the man was much more than Apollo.
As an actor, Weathers played roles that garnered cult classic fame, which can oftentimes be more meaningful than critical acclaim.
After Apollo’s death, Weathers played Dillon in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 action packed hit film, Predator. The movie spawned six future films, but nothing was as good as the original, and Weathers played a part in the film’s success. He and Schwarzenegger also gave fans the biceps flexing meme that is constantly used across social media.
But to understand his impact, you must look at his life and the time when he entered acting.
Born in New Orleans, Weathers was a gifted athlete who played linebacker for the San Diego State Aztecs (SDSU) during the Don Coryell era (1968-69) while also becoming a theatre major.
Afterward, he played for the Radiers for a short time before retiring in 1974 to pursue acting.
During the 70s, the place where most Black actors found work was in Blaxploitation films, and Weathers was no exception. He played small parts in two blaxploitation flicks, 1975’s Friday Foster (he played “Yarbro”) and Bucktown in the same year (he played “Hambone”).
Those films introduced him to the industry and a year later, he became Apollo Creed, a role originally meant for boxing legend Ken Norton but that ultimately went to Weathers.
In 1988, Weathers secured, arguably, his second most famous role as Jericho Jackson in the cult classic Action Jackson, where he played a former detective who, along with the help of Vanity, fights to clear his name.
The film never received Academy recognition, but it gave us a Black action hero in the lead role, something generally lacking on the silver screen after the Blaxploitation era ended. It also gave audiences a different look at Detroit than they one they saw a year earlier in the smash-hit Robocop.
Weathers would go on to play roles in shows such as Street Justice and In The Heat of the Night, but he reclaimed his silver screen presence in the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore.
Weathers was always able to carve out a place for himself regardless of the other stars around him. That ability to become memorable is what made him so special.
It’s a credit to his passion, work ethic and “no excuses” attitude that he unleashed when first trying to break into the business over 50 years ago.
“There’s an assumption there that there are certain resources that I may have had,” said Weathers to a group of student journalists at an event last year at SDSU. “You can do what you want to do with almost anything, or with almost nothing.
“None of that matters. The thing that matters most is your desire and your commitment. Your willingness to do what is necessary to make it so.
“You want to do it? Get off your butt and go do it. Don’t make excuses. Don’t have reasons why you can’t. Find reasons to do it.”
And he found reasons to do it and do it well in a career that spanned over five decades.
While we lost the great Carl Weathers last week, we have his movies to watch, which will help us remember and appreciate him for what he was able to do.
So let’s ring the bell one last time for Apollo Creed, a name that will live on thanks to Michael B. Jordan and of course Carl Weathers, an actor who gave us characters that we’ll never forget.
