Carl Weathers was born on January 14, 1948, in New Orleans, Louisiana. A famous and successful football star at San Diego State, he played with the Oakland Raiders and retired from the sport in 1974, in order to give full attention to his goal: to be a real actor. Weathers first played small parts in two blaxploitation flicks, Friday Foster (in which he played Yarbro) and Bucktown (playing Hambone), both made in 1975 and directed by Arthur Marks. However, his big break came the following year when producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff chose him to play Apollo Creed in the blockbuster "sleeper" Rocky (real-life boxing legend Ken Norton was originally signed for the part, but it eventually went to Weathers). He went on to play Creed in three other Rocky movies, and the characters' adversarial relationship eventually evolved into a warm friendship. After Creed's death in Rocky IV, Weathers met with producer Joel Silver and agreed to play an important supporting role in Predator, an action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The following year Silver produced Action Jackson, a first starring role for Weathers, but it performed poorly at the box office and was panned by the critics. During the 1990s Weathers starred in four In the Heat of the Night two-hour TV specials that were much better received by critics and viewers alike. In 1996 he played the part of Chubbs Peterson in the blockbuster Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore. He returned to his "action roots" in two TV-movies with Hulk Hogan: Assault on Devil's Island and Assault on Death Mountain. In addition to his acting career, Weathers is also a member of the Big Brothers Association and the U.S. Olympic Committee, handling the career of athletes of various sports such as gymnastics, wrestling, swimming and judo.
Played college football at San Diego State University One of the original actors that auditioned for the part of Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Before his career as an actor, he was a professional football player. During his professional football career, he played for the Oakland Raiders and a Canadian Football League squad. Played for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League from 1971 to 1973. Played linebacker in 18 games and wore #55. His most famous character, the flashy boxer Apollo Creed from the Rocky films, was loosely based on Muhammad Ali. College football coach at San Diego State was College Football Hall-of-Fame coach Don "Air" Coryell.