Carl Weathers Dies at 76; Legendary Actor Starred in 'Rocky' and 'Happy Gilmore'

Legendary actor and former NFL linebacker Carl Weathers died Thursday at the age of 76.

According to Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press, Weathers' family said in a statement that he died "peacefully in his sleep."

Moviegoers and sports fans may best remember Weathers for his roles in the iconic movies Rocky and Happy Gilmore. Also, before getting into acting, Weathers appeared in eight NFL regular-season games for the Oakland Raiders during the 1970 and 1971 campaigns.

Weathers' Happy Gilmore co-star, Adam Sandler, honored Weathers in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter:

Born in New Orleans, Weathers went on to play college football at Long Beach City College and San Diego State University before going undrafted in the 1970 NFL draft.

Weathers played in seven games for the Raiders as an undrafted rookie in 1970 and then appeared in only one game in 1971 prior to his release. From 1971 to 1973, Weathers played for the Canadian Football League's BC Lions, and then he got into acting.

One of Weathers' first major roles was in the 1976 film Rocky, which starred Sylvester Stallone as beloved underdog boxer Rocky Balboa.

Weathers played the role of Rocky's rival, Apollo Creed, which was a role he reprised in Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV. The Rocky-Creed relationship evolved over the course of the films to the point where the characters became close friends.

In arguably the most heart-wrenching scene of the entire Rocky franchise, Creed died during an exhibition fight against the evil Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

Twenty years after first taking on the role of Creed, Weathers played the role of another memorable character in a sports movie, that being Chubbs Peterson in the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore.

Happy Gilmore starred Sandler as a hockey player turned golfer, and Weathers' character was a former superstar professional golfer who had to retire after an alligator bit his hand off.

Chubbs helped Gilmore refine his game beyond his booming drive, although Peterson died just before Gilmore's showdown with Shooter McGavin in the Tour Championship, as he fell out a window after Happy showed him the head of the gator that bit his hand.

Still, Gilmore looked toward the spirit of the Chubbs character for advice and inspiration, and it helped Happy beat McGavin in the Tour Championship.

Weathers also had roles in notable movies such as Predator, Action Jackson and Toy Story 4, and he appeared in many television shows, including Good Times, The Six Million Dollar Man, Starsky & Hutch, The Shield and ER.

His most significant acting role in recent years was as Greef Karga in the Disney+ Star Wars series entitled The Mandalorian.