Apollo: a tribute to Carl Weathers

One weekend when I was like five years old, I went over my dad’s house for the weekend and he rented the movie Predator (1987). It was my first time ever watching it and I was excited because I was a big Arnold Schwarzenegger fan. One of the main characters in the movie was a guy named Dillon, portrayed by Carl Weathers, the equally muscle bound best friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character. This was my introduction to the legendary and sure enough I would become a fan of all of his work as an actor as I grew up.

Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana. From a young age, Weathers was a natural born athlete. He earned a scholarship to the private school St. Augustine in New Orleans where he was active in a variety of sports. While attending college in California he was fully devoted to football. Known for being a well tuned athlete, Weathers would eventually play in the NFL as free agent and even signing a contract with the then Oakland Raiders.

During his football career in the early 70’s Weathers began working his way into the world of acting when he started landing roles as an extra in the Blaxploitation films Bucktown and Friday Foster, both of which were released in 1975. He also managed to land more visible guest starring roles on a number of TV shows including Good Times, Kung Fu, and Starsky & Hutch. His biggest break in the world of film would come when he auditioned for the role of Apollo Creed in the 1976 film Rocky, written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. Interestingly enough , Stallone casted Weathers in the role after Weathers criticized Stallone’s acting.

Weathers would portray Apollo Creed for the first four hit films in the franchise. This would lead to him landing roles as an action-based tough guy in films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Predator (1987) and Action Jackson (1988). Weathers was eventually able to branch out into the world of comedy with roles in films like Happy Gilmore (1996), The Sasquatch Gang (2006) and The Comebacks (2007).

As bright as his star was already shining for decades, Weathers would shine even brighter in 2019 when he joined the universe of Star Wars on the Didlsbey Plus series The Mandalorian as the character Greef Karga. He even directed a couple of episodes for the second and third seasons of the series. He also earned an Daytime Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor.

What I’ve always enjoyed about Carl Weathers as an actor is how much of chameleon he was in his performances. For a while I never even noticed he was the same actor from Predator and Happy Gilmore, not because one is an action flick and the other is a comedy, but because he always just looked like he was having so much fun acting out these characters. You could always tell that it wasn’t just work for him, it was all genuine enjoyment. I also thought it was great to see an interview with him or a funny skit on the internet where he revisited his classic roles in films like Rocky just for a good laugh. To me this showed how humble he was and that he really appreciated the great opportunities he had.

Like the rest of the world, earlier today I received the news that Carl Weathers had passed away peacefully on February 1st, 2024. It goes without question how much we will all miss him, but we are thankful that he will always be here in spirit because of body of work he left behind that brought us all joy.

Rest well, uncle Carl. We deeply appreciate all the memories you have given us.