The professional football player starred alongside Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger in world-famous Hollywood films such as “Rocky” and “Predator”.
Carl Weathers became famous in the role of “Rocky” boxer Apollo Creed. Now the US actor and former professional athlete has died at the age of 76. Hollywood stars such as 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 boxer Apollo Creed, Weathers appeared alongside Stallone in four “Rocky” films (1976 to 1985). In 1987 he filmed the action film “Predator” with Schwarzenegger. Before his acting career, Weathers was a professional football player.
This is an incredibly sad day, Stallone said in an emotional video message on Instagram. Weathers was such an important part of his life and his “Rocky” success. Stallone lamented the loss of a “legend.” Over the course of the “Rocky” series, the characters Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa (Stallone) were initially arch enemies in the boxing ring, but then friends. In “Rocky IV,” Creed was fatally injured in a boxing match with the giant Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
In der Rolle als Apollo Creed in „Rocky“ IMAGO/Globe Photos
“Carl Weathers will always be a legend,” Schwarzenegger wrote on Instagram on Friday alongside a photo together on the set of “Predator.” He was an “extraordinary athlete, a fantastic actor and a great person”. In John McTiernan’s 1987 sci-fi action thriller “Predator,” they played Vietnam veterans fighting alien creatures in a jungle. Actors Adam Sandler (57), Dane Cook (51) and director Robert Rodriguez (55) also paid tribute to Weathers.
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