Carl Weathers is a known actor and an ex-football player hailing from the United States. His most memorable role was one of Apollo Creed in the Rocky series.
He became famous during his best time in this team and therefore was a magnet for the media.
Some of his other famous roles are Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore. Al Dillon in Predator, and a fictional version of himself on Arrested Development.
During his football career, he was playing for the Oakland Raiders (the National Football League) and the B.C. Lions (the Canadian Football League).
Early years
Carl was born on January 14th in 1948 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He says that it was a blessing that their family was given some chances in The States. They were all working very hard and trying to support each other during these hard times.
His father was working as a day laborer and he had to work very hard and on many jobs just to enable his kids a better life and a chance for a better education. He is very thankful for the fact that his father made such a sacrifice and he often talks about him as a person that helped him a lot!
His older brother also worked from an early age, helping his father to keep the family functioning.
He started attending the Long Beach Polytechnic High School. This was a really emotional experience for all of them.
When he was in eighth grade, he got an athletic scholarship from to St. Augustine High School, a private school in Florida. During his high school education, he played a lot of sports like football, judo, boxing, gymnastics, wrestling, and soccer.
He graduated from there in 1966. It was hard for him to stay focused o school because he wanted to become famous in order to help his family, but he did it anyway and managed to become one of the best-known athletes of his time.
In college, Carl played a position of a defensive end in football.
In 1966 he went to Long Beach City College but didn’t play football that year due to the ankle injury he suffered in a warm-up before the game when he tripped on a curb from the running track.
After that, he decided to transfer to San Diego University to play for them. He was a letterman for the San Diego State Aztecs both in 1968 and the year after. He was playing for the coach Don Coryell.
During his time on campus, he realized that he could never work on the 9-5 job because he had the chance to try it out and he was disappointed how much hard work it takes in order to earn very little money.
He worked at Ford Motor Co. while in college. He had also worked at the Post Office and on campus.
It helped him go through college easier because he didn’t have to worry about the money but it made him sure that he has to become awesome at football to become independent.
Career development
In 1970 Carl wasn’t drafted so he decided to sign a contract with the Oakland Raiders as their free agent. He was on a position of a linebacker in this team.
He played 7 games for the team in 1970 and only one the year after. He was released from the Raiders and he signed a contract with the BC Lions which is a team of Canadian Football league. He signed it in 1971 and played with them till 1973.
During his offseason in 1974 he went to San Francisco State University and got a bachelor’s degree in drama. The same year he retired from football and decided to focus on his acting career, which was another passion of his.
He was a narrator for the NFL Films’ recaps in 1999, 2000 and 2001. In 2017 he made an appearance on the NFL Network’s pre-draft coverage.
Carl started his work in an acting industry when he was still playing football. He had few jobs where he was an extra. His first bigger roles were in two films directed by his friend, Arthur Marks and they were called Friday Foster (1975) and Bucktown (1975).
He was also on an episode of Good Times called „The Nude” where he starred as a suspicious husband who believed his wife was cheating him. It was in the 1970s. He had great success with this role.
In 1975 he was a guest star in a series called „The Brothers Caine“ along with „Cannon“ and „The Hero“. He also appeared as a loan shark on the episode of Starsky and Hutch in 1976.
Carl Weathers went to an audition for Rocky and he wanted to play the part of Apollo Creed. He criticized Sylvester Stallone’s acting while auditioning for Rocky, and it was the reason he got the role and the producers liked his performance.
He played Apollo Creed in All of the Rocky films, in 1979, 1982 and 1985. This role brought him worldwide recognition.
Carl can also be seen as an Army MP in one movie version of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” in 1977.
In 1978 he was playing Vince Sullivan in a movie called „Not This Time“. During the 70s and 80s, he was starring in a huge number of movies and some of them were Predator (1987), Hurrican Smith (1992), Navarone (1978) and Action Jackson (1988).
In Predator in 1987 he starred alongside Bill Duke and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This was an extremely successful sci-fi movie.
He also worked with Jesse Ventur on this film.
Later he appeared in a segment of Saturday Night Live and announced that he will be running for office and told viewers to vote for him because „he was the black guy in Predator“.
Weathers appeared in Michael Jackson’s music video for „Liberian Girl“ and was in Adam Sandler comedy called Happy Gilmore as Chubbs. Four years later he played the same role again in the Little Nicky comedy.
He was also in last two seasons of In the Heat of the Night where he played Hampton Forbes, a character that replaced current chief of the police, Bill Gillespie.
He was also playing Adam Beaudreaux in Street Justice and Colonel Brewster in Tour of Duty.
In 2004 he made an appearance in three episodes of Arrested Development where he played a role of himself as a Tobias Funke’s acting coach.
He was also in the comedies The Comebacks and The Sasquatch Gang. He also had a role in two episodes of a show The Shield where he played a training officer of the main character.
Carl also gave his voice to a character of Colonel in a very popular video game titled Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction made by the Pandemic Studios.
He also narrated Conquest! The Price Of Victory – Witness The Journey of the Trojans! in 2007. It is a tv show about USC Athletics. It was a really fun experience and he said that he would love to do more interesting things in the future as well.
Carl is a principal of a film and video production company called Red Tight Media. This was inspired by his previous work with the media.
He appeared in an episode of ER where he had a role of the father of an injured boxer. That was in 2008. It was also a fun experience and he even thought about becoming an actor later. It wasn’t meant to be, he thought.
For the sixth Rocky movie in 2006 Stallone asked Dolph Lundgren, Mr.T and Weathers for permission to use their older footage for a flashback, and all of them agreed except Weathers, who wanted to film a scene. Stallone ended up using his lookalike for the scene.
In 2009 he had a role of the father of Daryl „Chill“ Mitchell and Michael Strahan in Fox’s sitcom called “Brothers”. It was filmed for Fox TV.
Currently, he is acting Brian „Gebo” Fitgerald in ads for Old Spice’s sponsorship for NASCAR driver, Tony Stewart.
He is also currently doing online advertisements for Credit Union of Washington.
As for some more responsible things he does – he is involved in the work of United States Olympic Committee which is not an easy task.
He also stars in the series of commercials for Bud Light Beer.
Carl had an opportunity to meet with Stallone in the near past since he was the one who was chosen to present Stallone an award at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
Personal life
Carl had a very fulfilled life since he became a known name when he was still pretty young.
He was surrounded by famous athletes and stars after he became a football player. It was a way of life for him and he attended a lot of parties and met a lot of girls.
In that period he had several relationships but he mostly kept it to himself.
Weathers was married to Mary Ann Castle in 1973 and they have two sons together, but they got divorced ten years later, in 1983.
He was in a very long marriage with Rhima Unsell from 1984 until 2006 which is quite long.
Before marrying Rhima he had a short affair with Kathie Lee Gifford, an American TV personality and host.
In 2007 he had started a relationship with Jennifer Peterson which ended up in marriage. It lasted only 17 months.
His two sons are grown up now and he has grandchildren too.
Quick summary
Full name: Carl Weathers
Date of birth: January 14, 1948
Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Age: 71
Profession: former football player, actor
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 94 kgs
Net Worth: $6 million