Rocky and The Mandalorian star Carl Weathers dies aged 76

Weathers, who also starred in Predator, turned to Hollywood after a career in American football
Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers arrives at a LA screening for The Mandalorian in February 2023
Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
Miriam Burrell2 February 2024
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Rocky, Predator and most recently The Mandalorian star Carl Weathers, has died aged 76.

The former American footballer became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies.

Matt Luber, his manager, said Weathers died on Thursday. His family said he died "peacefully in his sleep".

As comfortable flexing his muscles on the big screen in Action Jackson as he was joking around on the small screen in shows like Arrested Development, Weathers was perhaps most closely associated with Creed, who made his first appearance as the cocky, undisputed heavyweight world champion in 1976's Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone.

"It puts you on the map and makes your career, so to speak," he told The Daily Beast in 2017.

"But that's a one-off, so you've got to follow it up with something. Fortunately those movies kept coming, and Apollo Creed became more and more in people's consciousness and welcome in their lives, and it was just the right guy at the right time."

Most recently, Weathers has starred in the Disney+ hit The Mandalorian, appearing in all three seasons.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in