Carl Weathers, one of the protagonists of 'Rocky' and 'The Mandalorian', dies

Carl Weathers, the actor who played Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky installments, has died at the age of 76. The death occurred Thursday night, according to the artist's representative, Matt Luber. The performer, very famous in the eighties for action productions such as Predatorhad recently resurfaced thanks to the series The Mandalorian, one of the versions of the Star Wars universe created for the Disney+ platform. Weathers' family says he passed away unscathed in his sleep.

Weathers became one of the strong men who dominated American cinema during the eighties. His physical strength was exploited on screen since he debuted as an extra in Magnus Force (Harry the Strong), one of the installments of Harry Callahan, the famous detective starring Clint Eastwood. Weathers' body was not cultivated in theaters or television sets. It was in the gyms and on the playing field. Before debuting on the big screen he was a college football player. He wore the jersey of San Diego State University, a team that he used as a springboard to reach the NFL, where he played one season for the Oakland Raiders, today in Las Vegas, where he was coached by the legendary John Maden. .

“When football came into my life, it was something else. It was a very physical sport, but you also need your head. You have to study and learn the plays and the recordings to learn about your rivals every week,” he said in an interview with the Detroit News. But Weathers, a defensive tackle who started on the bench, simply wasn't cut out for the game. “You're too sensitive,” Madden told him after a game, according to with an interview with Sports Illustrated. After a discreet campaign with Oakland in 1970, he tried his luck for two years in the Canadian Football League. He took advantage of his vacation time to graduate from San Francisco State University with a degree in Acting.

Weathers always claimed that acting was his first love.

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