A few words about the late Carl Weathers
Friday night was a sad one for Rocky fans.
Every great hero needs an even greater heel to oppose them. In every sense of the entertainment value for a movie, that was the proverbial setup-especially in a Sylvester Stallone film. Any fan of the first four Rocky films would agree that it’s Carl Weathers’ portrayal of Apollo Creed that helps make the films so rich.
On paper, he was the popular yet bored champion who pulls a nobody out of obscurity for a boxing match; a rich classically trained pugilist against a rugged southpaw from the Philadelphia docks. Without Apollo, Rocky never makes it to the big time. He doesn’t smell a whiff of popularity, nor does he build such a huge legend.
Stallone knew that, and that’s why he was influential in the casting of Creed for the 1976 film. Weathers died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 76 on Thursday. When news of his passing surfaced on the internet Friday, I was riding around with my dad. Every week, we climb into a car and drive. Movie talk usually fills the air along with cigar smoke. Being with him when I heard of Weathers’ death was fitting, because I first found the actor with my dad in a theater, or a living room theater.
It wasn’t just Apollo either. We saw Weathers lead a movie called Action Jackson. He battled Craig T. Nelson, who was breaking bad from his television persona as a coach. If you didn’t find Weathers in Rocky or that underrated 1988 gem, you certainly remember his overly cocky Dillon from the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic, Predator.
The clash of muscles and personalities that occurred on screen transformed into a friendship after the movie. In a post on social media, the Austrian talked about how Weathers made that grueling shoot fun, and how he pushed his cast members. Along with being a remarkable athlete, he was outgoing and liked the style of the Predator set, where the on set weight lifting was competitive without being distracting. That was his habitat for a movie.
He also made us eventually care and love Apollo, a true antagonist who belittled and (gave a beating to) our underdog hero. The close decision loss in the first film won Balboa the champion’s respect. Rocky’s win in the sequel cemented their head to head clashes, at least technically. The third film found them as allies and then friends, aligned to take down Clubber Lang, a bully version of Apollo. You can’t watch that beach sprint without laughing a little, but the two actors made it genuine.
When Creed died in Rocky IV, our hearts were broken, a far cry from hoping he’d get beat up two films earlier. Only good actors can pull that kind of arc off. Weathers did it with less screen time, and he also pulled off the entrance of a lifetime with the help of James Brown.
His hilarious turn with Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore and last notable role on The Mandalorian showed his range and also centered around what he was good at. There was a charm to his acting, a connection that radiated from that stone cold stare. That classic head turn in Predator, when Dillon notices something is foul and definitely not cool in that jungle. That’s all you needed with him: a look.
Thinking about him makes me think of my youth: the 80s kid who hung out with his dad all the time, and that included a lot of trips to Kenrick and Esquire. Weathers was a fixture back in those days, someone who mastered the portrayal of a heel but could flip the switch and fight along the good guys too.
76 years young and able to breathe his last breath in front of his family, Carl should rest in power. It’s now time for a revisit of his classics.