Acting Career
Weathers had his first parts in two blaxploitation films directed by his longtime friend Arthur Marks: Bucktown and Friday Foster (both 1975). Weathers also appeared in an episode of the 1970s sitcom Good Times entitled "The Nude", portraying an angry husband who suspected his wife of cheating on him with J.J.
In 1976, he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky as Apollo Creed, a role he would reprise in the next three Rocky films in 1979, 1982 and 1985. For the final film in the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone asked Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky movies. Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren acquiesced, but Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie, even though his character died in Rocky IV. Stallone refused and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for Rocky flashbacks from the previous movies. They instead used footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers.
In 1978, Carl portrayed misogynist Vince Sullivan in a TV movie, Not This Time. Weathers also 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 is briefly seen as an Army MP in one of the three released versions of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. As a member of the cast of Predator, Weathers worked with future California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and future Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. Many years later he appeared in a spoof segment on Saturday Night Live, announcing that he was running for political office and urging viewers to vote for him on the basis that "he was the black guy in Predator".
He also appeared in Michael Jackson's "Liberian Girl" music video, and co-starred in the Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, as Chubbs, a golf legend teaching Happy how to play golf. He reprised the role nearly four years later in the Sandler comedy Little Nicky.
During the final season of In the Heat of the Night, his character of Hampton Forbes replaced Bill Gillespie as the chief of police. He continued that role in the television movies based on the series. Another noted TV role was Sgt. Adam Beaudreaux on the cop show Street Justice. He also played as MACV-SOG Colonel Brewster in the CBS series Tour of Duty.
In 2004, Weathers received a career revival as a comedic actor beginning with appearances in 3 episodes of the comedy series Arrested Development as a cheapskate caricature of himself, who serves as Tobias Fünke's acting coach. He was then cast in the comedies The Sasquatch Gang and The Comebacks.
Weathers had a guest role in two episodes of The Shield as the former training officer of main character Vic Mackey.
Weathers provided the voice for Colonel Samuel Garrett in the Pandemic Studios video game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. In 2005, he was a narrator on Conquest! The Price Of Victory - Witness The Journey of the Trojans!, an 18-part television show about USC athletics.
Weathers is a principal of Red Tight Media, a film and video production company that specializes in tactical training films made for the United States armed forces.
He also appeared in one episode of ER as the father of an injured boxer during their 2008 finale season.
He is currently acting as "Brian 'Gebo' Fitzgerald" in advertising for Old Spice's sponsorship of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart.
He also appears in an ongoing series of web-only advertisements for Credit Union of Washington, dispensing flowers and the advice that "change is beautiful" to puzzled-looking bystanders.
Weathers, sporting an unfamiliar look (sans hair and mustache), portrayed the father of Michael Strahan and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell's characters on the short-lived 2009 Fox sitcom Brothers.
He is currently starring in a series of commercials for Bud Light in which he introduces plays from the "Bud Light Playbook". At the conclusion of each commercial, Weathers can be seen bursting through the Bud Light Playbook, shouting "Here we go!".
Read more about this topic: Carl Weathers
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