Carl Weathers

Weathers played football as a defensive end in college. 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. He then transferred and played for San Diego State University, becoming a letterman for the San Diego State Aztecs in 1968 and 1969, helping the Aztecs win the 1969 Pasadena Bowl, finishing with an 11–0 record, and a No. 18 ranking in the Final UPI Poll, playing for head coach Don Coryell. At San Diego State, Weathers—who considered acting his first love and had been performing in plays even back in grade school—received a master in theatre arts.

Weathers signed with the Oakland Raiders of the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 1970. Now playing as a linebacker, Weathers played in seven games for the Raiders in 1970, helping them win the AFC West Division title, on their way to the first-ever AFC Championship Game. Before the 1971 season, Weathers converted to the position of strong safety. He played in one game of the 1971 NFL season before the Raiders released him in September 1971, after head coach John Madden told Weathers, "You're just too sensitive." Later that month, Weathers signed with the BC Lions of the CFL. He played for the Lions until 1973, playing 13 games in total. During the off-seasons, Weathers attended San Francisco State University and earned a bachelor's degree in drama in 1974. Weathers retired from football in 1974, and began pursuing an acting career. In his NFL career he appeared in 8 games in two seasons, but did not record any stats. The only stat he recorded in his CFL career was a single fumble recovery. In later years, Weathers narrated NFL Films' season recap of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons. During the 2017 NFL draft, he appeared on NFL Network's pre-draft coverage.

Weathers began working as an extra while still playing football. He had his first significant roles in two blaxploitation films directed by his longtime friend Arthur Marks: Bucktown (1975) and Friday Foster (1975). Weathers also appeared in "The Nude", an early 1975 episode of the sitcom Good Times, portraying an angry husband who suspects his wife of cheating on him with J.J. Weathers also guest-starred in "The Brothers Caine", a 1975 episode of the action TV series Kung Fu and in "The Hero", an episode of Cannon. In 1976, he appeared as a loan shark in an episode of the crime-drama Starsky & Hutch, and in the Barnaby Jones episode "The Bounty Hunter" as escaped convict Jack Hopper. While auditioning for the role of Apollo Creed alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, Weathers criticized Stallone's acting, which actually led to him getting the role. He reprised the role of Apollo Creed in the following three Rocky films: Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), and Rocky IV (1985). Weathers briefly appears as an Army MP in one of the three released versions of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (originally released in 1977). In 1978, Weathers portrayed Vince Sullivan in a TV movie, Not This Time. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Weathers 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 hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1988 and appeared in a skit…

Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was a day laborer. As an eighth-grade student, Weathers earned an athletic scholarship to St. Augustine High School, a private school. He was an all-around athlete, involved in boxing, football, gymnastics, judo, soccer, and wrestling and he graduated from Long Beach Poly High School in 1966.