Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, has died.
He was 76.
Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died Thursday.
His family issued a statement saying he died “peacefully in his sleep.”
Weathers, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, faced off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and taught golf in “Happy Gilmore.”
As comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in “Action Jackson” as he was joking around on the small screen in such shows as “Arrested Development,” he was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976’s “Rocky,” starring Sylvester Stallone.
“It puts you on the map and makes your career, so to speak,” Weathers told The Daily Beast in 2017. “But that’s a one-off, so you’ve got to follow it up with something.
“Fortunately those movies kept coming, and Apollo Creed became more and more in people’s consciousness and welcome in their lives, and it was just the right guy at the right time.”
Most recently, Weathers has starred in the Disney+ hit “The Mandalorian,” appearing in all three seasons.
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