Carl Weathers: Too likable to be a villain

The older I get, the more used to hearing of celebrity deaths I get. But there are some that hit harder than others. 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I laid in bed a little longer than usual. I grabbed my phone off its charger and mindlessly began scrolling through social media. As I scrolled down, it hit me like a ton of bricks. “RIP Carl Weathers.” 

I am sure I let out some kind of an exclamation. Maybe it was an “Oh man!” Or maybe it was a “No way!” Whatever I may have said or done, it was only the tip of the iceberg for what I was feeling.

There are certain people you just can’t envision dying. Carl Weathers is one of them.

It felt like I had just seen him. Maybe that is because I just started watching the comedy series “Arrested Development” for the first time recently. Maybe it is because he played a very memorable role as Adam Sandler’s one-handed golf instructor, Chubbs Peterson, in Happy Gilmore and that movie is always on somewhere.

“Just tap it in. Just tap it in.” 

“It’s all in the hips, baby. All in the hips.”

He played alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1987 movie, Predator. He played main roles in a couple TV series in the 1990s that I had never heard of, Street Justice and In the Heat of the Night. The latter one I vaguely remembered because it was strange seeing Archie Bunker playing a police officer.

The second most memorable Carl Weathers’ role, in my book, was in the title role of a 1987 film called Action Jackson. I haven’t heard anyone talk about that movie and for good reason. OK, OK, but I don’t, necessarily, remember the movie for Carl Weathers. As a young teenager, I remembered watching the movie dozens of times for the nude scenes involving Prince’s one-time girlfriend, Vanity, and a still unknown Sharon Stone. But Carl Weathers had top billing in the movie.

But, come on, his most memorable role, by far, is as Apollo Creed in the Rocky films. He was so believable as a prima donna boxing champion. I saw somewhere where Sylvester Stallone could have picked a real boxer for the role – picture Sugar Ray Leonard or Muhammad Ali as Creed. But Stallone picked a former NFL football player – he had a cup of coffee with the Oakland Raiders – for the role. And he was perfect. Kudos to Stallone for writing a great script, for holding out to portray Rocky himself, and for the entire casting of the film, including Weathers.

It’s what makes the Rocky films my favorite movies ever. I’ve seen the first four Rocky films, easily, over 100 times. And that would be very conservative. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the last few Rocky films as much because – spoiler alert (but it has been almost fifty years now so if you haven't seen the movies, you're not going to) – Apollo was killed off in the ring by the Soviet behemoth, Ivan Drago.

The Rocky films wouldn’t have been the same without Weathers. He oozed charisma. Rocky needed that counterpart – an actor who could be believed as a flamboyant boxing champion. I can picture one of Apollo Creed's trainers checking his hair in his corner moments before his opening fight with Rocky. Or how about him riding into the ring on the 4th of July on a float, dressed as George Washington, tossing confetti into the crowd? Pure gold.

Despite being the villain in the first two Rocky movies, Weathers played the role with a vulnerability that made him hard to hate. I can see him now – with his arms raised in victory – standing in the opposite corner of the ring after knocking Rocky to the mat, turning to notice a beat up Rocky, gradually, getting to his feet. The look of dismay, yet compassion, on Weathers’ face as he shakes his head in disbelief. Is he feeling sorry for having to punish this unknown boxer even more and, possibly, cause serious permanent damage to this local club fighter known as the Italian Stallion? Or is he afraid that he just gave this guy everything he has, and he keeps getting up? The look on Weathers’ face says it all.

Then there is the scene in the beginning of Rocky II where he is standing inside on the balcony of his living room, rifling through hate mail he has received following the first fight, and trying to explain to his wife why he needs to have a rematch with Rocky. You want to hate him, but you just can’t. Fast forward a half century and who can’t relate to online bullying? What Weathers – obviously without realizing it – was portraying was the 1976 version of anonymous social media bullying. He played the angst and self doubt, perfectly.

It is no wonder Stallone couldn’t keep Weathers as a villain. He was too likable. In wrestling, they call it going from a heel to a face. But Weathers was more than just a face. I don’t know if it was Stallone’s intention all along for Rocky to become best friends with Creed, but he really had no choice.

I was surprised to see Carl Weathers’ height listed as either 6’1” or 6'2". He seemed so much taller. That was because he was larger than life – or maybe because Sylvester Stallone is so short.

I am picturing Weathers stepping on his tippy toes as he is standing at the center of the ring with Dolph Lundgren as the referee is reading the boxers the instructions and the beginning of their “exhibition” fight. As he does it, Weathers gives Lundgren the George W. Bush eyebrow raise.

I will close, however, with a scene from Happy Gilmore. Weathers plays local golf pro, Chubbs Peterson. Peterson had a prosthetic wooden hand as a result of an alligator biting his hand off while he was trying to retrieve an errant golf ball. In one scene, as Happy Gilmore, portrayed by Adam Sandler, is lamenting Chubbs’ death (which Happy caused), Weathers is shown all dressed in white playing a piano in a field – presumably in some form of heaven.

As Weathers is sitting, strumming the piano, he says to Happy, “Chin up, Happy. Don’t feel bad about me. I’ve got my hand back. See?” Weathers then starts singing a beautiful rendition of “We’ve Only Just Begun.” There was nothing Carl Weathers couldn’t do. Rest in peace.