Carl Weathers (January 14, 1948 – February 1, 2024) was an American actor, director, and professional football linebacker.
Prior to his acting career, he played Collegiate American Football at San Diego State, in the National Football League with the Oakland Raiders, and in the Canadian Football League with the B.C. Lions.
His best-known roles are boxing champion Apollo Creed in the Rocky films, CIA operative Al Dillon in Predator, Jericho "Action" Jackson in Action Jackson, retired professional golf player Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore and a fictionalized version of himself in Arrested Development. He voiced Omnitraxus on Star vs. the Forces of Evil and also played Greef Karga in Star Wars: The Mandalorian, two episodes of which he also directed.
He passed away on February 1, 2024. According to his family, he died "peacefully in his sleep."
TV tropes filmography:
- Magnum Force (1973) as Demonstrator (uncredited)
- Rocky as Apollo Creed
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) as Military Police
- The Bermuda Depths (1978) as Eric
- Force 10 from Navarone (1978) as Weaver
- Death Hunt (1981) as Sundog
- Predator (1987) as Dillon
- Action Jackson (1988) as Jericho 'Action' Jackson
- Happy Gilmore (1996) as Chubbs
- Little Nicky (1998) as Chubbs (uncredited)
- Eight Crazy Nights (2002) as GNC Guy (voice)
- Balto III: Wings of Change (2004) as Kirby (voice)
- The Sasquatch Gang (2006) as Dr. Artimus Snodgrass
- The Comebacks (2007) as Freddie Wiseman
- Think Like a Man Too (2014) as Mr. Davenport (uncredited)
- Toy Story 4 (2019) as Combat Carls (voice)
- Good Times (1 episode, 1975) as Calvin
- Kung Fu (1 episode, 1975) as Bad Sam
- S.W.A.T. (1 episode, 1975) as Ed
- The Six Million Dollar Man (1 episode, 1975) as Stolar
- Cannon (1 episode, 1975) as Dan Holloway
- Switch (1 episode, 1975) as Lt. Gifford
- McCloud (1 episode, 1976) as Delaney
- Starsky & Hutch (1 episode, 1976) as Al Martin
- Barnaby Jones (1 episode, 1976) as Jack Hopper
- Delvecchio (1 episode, 1977) as Sgt. Bell
- The Streets of San Francisco (1 episode, 1977) as Officer Hague
- Tales of the Unexpected (1 episode, 1977) as Dalby
- The Defiant Ones (TV movie, 1986) as Cullen Monroe
- Tour of Duty (9 episodes, 1989–90) as Col. Brewster
- Street Justice (44 episodes, 1991–93) as Adam Beaudreaux
- In the Heat of the Night (28 episodes, 1993–95) as Inspector (later Chief) Hampton Forbes
- The Shield (2 episodes, 2003–07) as Joe Clark
- Arrested Development (4 episodes, 2004–13) as Carl Weathers
- ER (1 episode, 2008) as Louie Taylor
- Psych (1 episode, 2010) as Floyd Boone
- Toy Story of Terror (TV movie, 2013) as Combat Carl/Combat Carl Jr. (voice)
- Regular Show (2 episodes, 2011–13) as Basketball King/God of Basketball (voice)
- Chicago P.D. (4 episodes, 2016–17) as Mark Jeffries
- Chicago Fire (2 episodes, 2016–17) as Mark Jeffries
- Chicago Justice (13 episodes, 2017) as Mark Jeffries
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1 episode, 2018) as SA Mark Jeffries
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil (10 episodes, 2017–19) as Omnitraxus/Additional Voices (voice)
- Magnum, P.I. (1 episode, 2018) as Dan Sawyer
- The Mandalorian (9 episodes, 2019–23) as Greef Karga
- Chadam (3 episodes, 2010) as Narrator
- Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005) as Col. Samuel Garrett (voice)
- Mortal Kombat X (2015) as Jax - 'Dillon' Skin (voice)
- The Artful Escape (2021) as Lightman (voice)
- James Brown: "Living in America" (1985) as Apollo Creed
This actor is an example of:
- Adam Westing: Arrested Development, made during a major low point in his career, portrays him as a huge cheapskate whose "acting" lessons are often just tips on spending less money.
- An Arm and a Leg: Some of his more famous roles have him playing a character who loses or has lost a hand, like Al Dillon, Chubbs Peterson and Combat Carl. In honor of the Predator being a Guest Fighter in Mortal Kombat X, NetherRealm Studios gave Jax, a man who had his arms ripped off and replaced with cybernetic ones, a DLC skin based on Dillon, complete with Weathers doing the voice for the skin.
