Carl Weathers Biography

Carl Weathers (born January 14, 1948), is an American actor, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He is best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films. He also played Dillon in Predator, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore and Little Nicky, and an exaggeratedly frugal fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development.

Personal life

Weathers was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School in 1966 and then went to Long Beach City College and San Diego State University. Outside of acting, he is a member of both Big Brothers and the United States Olympic Committee. In February 1973 he married Mary Ann Castle with whom he has two sons, Jason and Matthew. They were divorced in July 1983. In February 1984 he married Rhona Unsell. He married Jennifer Peterson, his third wife, in 2007. They divorced in 2009.

Football career

Weathers played football both collegiately and professionally as a linebacker. 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, Paul Snow. He then transferred and played for San Diego State University, becoming a letterman in 1968 and 1969. This led to a brief professional career with the Oakland Raiders, where he played 7 games in 1970 and one game in 1971. He joined the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League in 1971 and played until 1973, 18 games in total. He retired in 1974, and began pursuing an acting career. In his football career, he played for hall-of-fame coaches Don Coryell (at San Diego State) and John Madden with the Oakland Raiders. He was chosen to narrate NFL Films' season recap of the 2001 Raiders.

Acting career

Weathers had his first parts in two blaxploitation films directed by his longtime friend Arthur Marks: Bucktown and Friday Foster (both 1975). Weathers also appeared in an episode of the 1970s sitcom Good Times entitled "The Nude", portraying an angry husband who suspected his wife of cheating on him with J.J.

In 1976, he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky as Apollo Creed, a role he would reprise in the next three Rocky films in 1979, 1982 and 1985. For the final film in the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone asked Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky movies. Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren acquiesced, but Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie, even though his character died in Rocky IV. Stallone refused and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for Rocky flashbacks from the previous movies. They instead used footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers.

In 1978, Carl portrayed misogynist Vince Sullivan in a TV movie, Not This Time. Weathers also 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 is briefly seen as an Army MP in one of the three released versions of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As a member of the cast of Predator, Weathers worked with future California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. Many years later he appeared in a spoof segment on Saturday Night Live, announcing that he was running for political office and urging viewers to vote for him on the basis that "he was the black guy in Predator".

He also appeared in Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" music video, and co-starred in the 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.

During the final season of In the Heat of the Night, his character of Hampton Forbes replaced Bill Gillespie as the chief of police. He continued that role in the television movies based on the series. Another noted TV role was Sgt. Adam Beaudreaux on the cop show Street Justice. He also played as 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 3 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 is 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 as the father of an injured boxer during their 2008 finale season.

He is currently acting as "Brian 'Gebo' Fitzgerald" in advertising for Old Spice's sponsorship of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart.

He also appears 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.

Weathers, sporting an unfamiliar look (sans hair and mustache), portrayed the father of Michael Strahan and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell's characters on the short-lived 2009 Fox sitcom Brothers.

He is currently starring in a series of commercials for Bud Light in which he introduces plays from the "Bud Light Playbook". At the conclusion of each commercial, Weathers can be seen bursting through the Bud Light Playbook, shouting "Here we go!".

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
	Semi-Tough	Dreamer Tatum
1978	The Bermuda Depths	Eric
	Force 10 from Navarone	Sgt. Weaver
1979	Rocky II	Apollo Creed
1981	Death Hunt	Sundog/George Washington Lincoln Brown
1982	Rocky III	Apollo Creed
1985	Rocky IV	Apollo Creed
	Braker	Lieutenant Harry Braker
1986	The Defiant Ones
1987	Predator	Major George Dillon
1988	Action Jackson	Sgt./Lt. Jericho "Action" Jackson
1990	Dangerous Passion	Kyle
1992	Hurricane Smith	Billy 'Hurricane' Smith
1993	Dead On Delivery
1995	Op Center	Gen. Mike Rodgers
1996	Happy Gilmore	Chubbs Peterson
1997	Shadow Warriors: Assault on Devil's Island	Roy Brown
1999	Shadow Warriors 2: Hunt for the Death Merchant	Roy Brown
2000	Little Nicky	Chubbs Peterson
2002	Eight Crazy Nights	GNC Water Bottle	Voice role
2004	Balto III: Wings of Change	Kirby	Voice role
2005	Alien Siege	General Skyler
2006	The Sasquatch Dumpling Gang	Dr. Artimus Snodgrass
2007	The Comebacks	Freddie Wiseman/Narrator
2012	American Warships	General McKraken

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Fortune Dane	Fortune Dane
2004	Arrested Development	as a characterization of himself	Season 1 Episode 11 "Public Relations" Season 1 Episode 12 "Marta Complex"
2010	Psych	Boone	Season 5 Episode 6 "Viagra Falls"
2013	Arrested Development	as a characterization of himself
	Toy Story of Terror	Combat Carl	Voice only