Carl Weathers (January 14, 1948 – February 2, 2024) was an American actor, director and gridiron football player. His prominent roles included boxer Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky films (1976–1985), Colonel Al Dillon in Predator (1987), Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore (1996), and Combat Carl in the Toy Story franchise. He also starred in the 1988 film Action Jackson and portrayed Det. Beaudreaux in the television series Street Justice (1991–1993) and a fictionalized version of himself in the comedy series Arrested Development (2004, 2013), and voiced Omnitraxus Prime in Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2017–2019). He had a recurring role as Greef Karga in the Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019–2023), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
Carl Weathers | |||||
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 Weathers at the 2017 New York Comic Con | |||||
| Born | January 14, 1948 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. | ||||
| Died | February 2, 2024 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | ||||
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| Years active |
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| Partner | Christine Kludjian (2014–2024) | ||||
| Children | 2 | ||||
| Football career | |||||
| No. 49, 55 | |||||
| Position | Linebacker | ||||
| Personal information | |||||
| Listed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||
| Listed weight | 220 lb (100 kg) | ||||
| Career information | |||||
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| NFL draft | 1970: undrafted | ||||
| Career history | |||||
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Weathers played college football for the San Diego State Aztecs before playing professionally as a linebacker. He joined the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League (NFL) after going undrafted in the 1970 NFL draft. After two seasons with the Raiders, he played three seasons with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL).
Early life, family and education
Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was a day laborer. As an eighth-grade student, Carl earned an athletic scholarship to St. Augustine High School, a private school. He was an all-around athlete, involved in boxing, football, gymnastics, judo, soccer, and wrestling and he graduated from Long Beach Poly High School in 1966.
College football career
Weathers played football as a defensive end in college. He started his college career in 1966 at Long Beach City College, where he did not play in 1966 due to an ankle injury suffered when he tripped over a curb surrounding the running track while warming up for practice with another linebacker. He then transferred and played for San Diego State University, becoming a letterman for the San Diego State Aztecs in 1968 and 1969, helping the Aztecs win the 1969 Pasadena Bowl, finishing with an 11–0 record, and a No. 18 ranking in the Final UPI Poll, playing for head coach Don Coryell. At San Diego State, Weathers—who considered acting his first love and had been performing in plays even back in grade school—received a master in theatre arts.
Professional football career
Weathers signed with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 1970. Now playing as a linebacker, Weathers played in seven games for the Raiders in 1970, helping them win the AFC West Division title, on their way to the first-ever AFC Championship Game. Before the 1971 season, Weathers converted to the position of strong safety. He played in one game of the 1971 NFL season before the Raiders released him in September 1971, after head coach John Madden told Weathers, "You're just too sensitive."
Later that month, Weathers signed with the BC Lions of the CFL. He played for the Lions until 1973, playing 13 games in total. During the off-seasons, Weathers attended San Francisco State University and earned a bachelor's degree in drama in 1974.
Weathers retired from football in 1974, and began pursuing an acting career. In his NFL career he appeared in 8 games in two seasons, but did not record any stats. The only stat he recorded in his CFL career was a single fumble recovery. In later years, Weathers narrated NFL Films' season recap of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons. During the 2017 NFL draft, he appeared on NFL Network's pre-draft coverage.
Acting career
Weathers began working as an extra while still playing football. He had his first significant roles in two blaxploitation films directed by his longtime friend Arthur Marks: Bucktown (1975) and Friday Foster (1975). Weathers also appeared in "The Nude", an early 1975 episode of the sitcom Good Times, portraying an angry husband who suspects his wife of cheating on him with J.J. Weathers also guest-starred in "The Brothers Caine", a 1975 episode of the action TV series Kung Fu and in "The Hero", an episode of Cannon. In 1976, he appeared as a loan shark in an episode of the crime-drama Starsky & Hutch, and in the Barnaby Jones episode "The Bounty Hunter" as escaped convict Jack Hopper.
While auditioning for the role of Apollo Creed alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, Weathers criticized Stallone's acting, which actually led to him getting the role. He reprised the role of Apollo Creed in the following three Rocky films: Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), and Rocky IV (1985).
Weathers briefly appears as an Army MP in one of the three released versions of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (originally released in 1977). In 1978, Weathers portrayed Vince Sullivan in a TV movie, Not This Time. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Weathers starred in a number of action films for the small and big screen, including Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Predator (1987), Action Jackson (1988), and Hurricane Smith (1992). He hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1988 and appeared in a skit in a 2003 episode.
Weathers appeared in Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" music video and co-starred in the 1996 Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, as Chubbs, a golf legend teaching Happy how to play golf. He reprised the role nearly four years later in the Sandler comedy Little Nicky. Filming a fall stunt in Happy Gilmore, Weathers fractured two vertebrae and his osteophytes grew out and connected and self-fused badly. He said he was in excruciating pain for three to four years.
Another notable television role was Sgt. Adam Beaudreaux on the cop show Street Justice. Afterwards, during the final two seasons of In the Heat of the Night (1992–1994), his character, Hampton Forbes, replaced Bill Gillespie as the chief of police. He also played MACV-SOG Colonel Brewster in the CBS series Tour of Duty.
In 2004, Weathers received a career revival as a comedic actor beginning with appearances in three episodes of the comedy series Arrested Development as a cheapskate caricature of himself, who serves as Tobias Fünke's acting coach. He was then cast in the comedies The Sasquatch Gang and The Comebacks. Weathers had a guest role in two episodes of The Shield as the former training officer of main character Vic Mackey.
Weathers provided the voice for Colonel Samuel Garrett in the Pandemic Studios video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. In 2005, he was a narrator on Conquest! The Price of Victory — Witness the Journey of the Trojans!, an 18-part television show about USC athletics. Weathers was a principal of Red Tight Media, a film and video production company that specializes in tactical training films made for the United States armed forces. He also appeared in one episode of ER in 2008 during its finale season.
For the sixth film in the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa (2006), Stallone asked Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky films. Mr. T and Lundgren agreed, but Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie, even though his character had died in Rocky IV. Stallone refused, and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for flashbacks from the previous films. They instead used footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers. Weathers and Stallone patched up their differences and Weathers agreed to allow footage of him from previous films to be used throughout Creed (2015).
Weathers portrayed the father of Michael Strahan and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell's characters on the short-lived 2009 Fox sitcom Brothers. Weathers acted as Brian "Gebo" Fitzgerald in advertising for Old Spice's sponsorship of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. He also appeared in an ongoing series of web-only advertisements for Credit Union of Washington, dispensing flowers and the advice that "change is beautiful" to puzzled-looking bystanders. He also starred in a series of commercials for Bud Light, in which he introduced plays from the "Bud Light Playbook." At the conclusion of each commercial, Weathers could be seen bursting through the Bud Light Playbook and shouting "Here we go!"
In 2019, Weathers appeared as Greef Karga in several episodes of the first season of the Star Wars series The Mandalorian. He returned for the second season and also directed the episode "Chapter 12: The Siege". He returned for season 3 and directed the episode "Chapter 20: The Foundling". His performance earned him an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor.
Personal life
Weathers was married three times. He married Mary-Ann Castle in 1973; they had two sons and divorced in 1983. In 1984, Weathers married Rhona Unsell; they divorced in 2006. Weathers was married to Jennifer Peterson from 2007 until 2009. Weathers was with his longtime partner Christine Kludjian from 2014, until his death in 2024.
Death
Weathers died at his home in Los Angeles on February 2, 2024, at age 76, from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, according to a disputed death certificate. Weathers' body was cremated. On August 29, 2024, he was honored with a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star Ceremony.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Magnum Force | Demonstrator | Uncredited |
| 1975 | Friday Foster | Yarbro | |
| Bucktown | Hambone | ||
| 1976 | The Four Deuces | Taxi Cab Driver | |
| Rocky | Apollo Creed | ||
| 1977 | Close Encounters of the Third Kind | MP Officer | |
| Semi-Tough | Dreamer Tatum | ||
| 1978 | Force 10 from Navarone | Sgt. Olen Weaver | |
| 1979 | Rocky II | Apollo Creed | |
| 1981 | Death Hunt | George Washington Lincoln "Sundog" Brown | |
| 1982 | Rocky III | Apollo Creed | |
| 1985 | Rocky IV | Director's cut released in 2021 | |
| 1987 | Predator | Colonel Al Dillon | |
| 1988 | Action Jackson | Sgt. / Lt. Jericho "Action" Jackson | Nominated—NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture |
| 1992 | Hurricane Smith | Billy "Hurricane" Smith | |
| 1996 | Happy Gilmore | Derick "Chubbs" Peterson | |
| 2000 | Little Nicky | Uncredited | |
| 2002 | Eight Crazy Nights | GNC Water Bottle | Voice |
| 2004 | Balto III: Wings of Change | Kirby | Voice; direct-to-video |
| 2006 | The Sasquatch Gang | Dr. Artimus Snodgrass | |
| 2007 | The Comebacks | Freddie Wiseman / Narrator | |
| 2012 | Sheriff Tom vs. the Zombies | President Weathers | Cameo |
| 2014 | Think Like a Man Too | Mr. Davenport | Uncredited |
| 2015 | Creed | Apollo Creed | Archive footage |
| 2019 | Toy Story 4 | Combat Carl | Voice, final film role |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Good Times | Calvin Brooks | Episode: "The Nude" |
| Cannon | Dan Daily Chronicle reporter | Episode: "The Hero" | |
| The Six Million Dollar Man | Stolar | Episode: "One of Our Running Backs Is Missing" | |
| Kung Fu | Bad Sam | Episode: "The Brothers Caine" | |
| 1976 | Starsky & Hutch | Al Martin | Episode: "Nightmare" |
| Barnaby Jones | Jack Hopper | Episode: "The Bounty Hunter" | |
| 1977 | Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected | Hank Dalby | Episode: "A Hand For Sonny Blue" |
| Streets of San Francisco | Officer Hague | Episode: "Innocent No More" | |
| The Hostage Heart | Bateman Hooks | Television film | |
| 1978 | The Bermuda Depths | Eric | |
| 1985 | Braker | Lt. Harry Braker | |
| 1986 | The Defiant Ones | Cullen Monroe | |
| Fortune Dane | Fortune Dane | Main role, 5 episodes | |
| 1989–90 | Tour of Duty | Col. Carl Brewster | Recurring role, 9 episodes |
| 1990 | Dangerous Passion | Kyle Western | Television film |
| 1991–1993 | Street Justice | Adam Beaudreaux | Main role, 44 episodes |
| 1993–1995 | In the Heat of the Night | Police Chief Hampton Forbes | Main role, 28 episodes |
| 1995 | Tom Clancy's Op Center | Gen. Mike Rodgers | Television film |
| 1997 | Assault on Devil's Island | Roy Brown | |
| 1999 | Assault on Death Mountain | ||
| 2003, 2007 | The Shield | Joe Clark | Episodes: "Haunts", "Partners" |
| 2004–2013 | Arrested Development | Carl Weathers | 4 episodes |
| 2005 | Alien Siege | Gen. Skyler | Television film |
| 2008 | Phoo Action | Chief Benjamin Benson | Television pilot |
| ER | Louie Taylor | Episode: "Oh, Brother" | |
| 2010 | Psych | Boone | Episode: "Viagra Falls" |
| 2011, 2013 | Regular Show | God of Basketball, Basketball King | Voice; episodes: "Slam Dunk", "Bank Shot" |
| 2012 | American Warships | Gen. McKraken | Television film |
| 2013 | Toy Story of Terror! | Combat Carl and Jr | Voice; television special |
| 2016 | Colony | Beau | Recurring role, 7 episodes |
| 2016–2017 | Chicago P.D. | State's Attorney Mark Jefferies | 4 episodes |
| Chicago Fire | 2 episodes | ||
| 2017 | Chicago Justice | Main role, 13 episodes | |
| 2017–2019 | Star vs. the Forces of Evil | Omnitraxus Prime, Additional voices | Voice; recurring role, 10 episodes |
| 2018 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | State's Attorney Mark Jefferies | Episode: "Zero Tolerance" |
| Magnum P.I. | Dan Sawyer | Episode: "From the Head Down" | |
| 2019 | Pinky Malinky | The Apologizer | Voice |
| 2019–2023 | The Mandalorian | Greef Karga | 10 episodes; Director: "Chapter 12: The Siege" and "Chapter 20: The Foundling" Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series |
Video games
| Year | Title | Voice role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction | Col. Samuel Garrett | |
| 2015 | Mortal Kombat X | Jax - 'Dillon' Skin | |
| 2021 | The Artful Escape | Lightman |
See also
- 1971 Oakland Raiders season