10 Unsung Movie Heroes Of The Video Rental Era

The former Oakland Raider left the NFL and football in general in the early 1970s to pursue an acting career. After a run of small parts, his physique and obvious charisma landed him the role of Apollo Creed in 1976 opposite another young, upcoming actor, Sylvester Stallone. The two would work together for four instalments of the Rocky films.

The fast talking and outrageous Apollo Creed is undoubtedly a contributing factor to the overall success of the Rocky franchise and for much of his career, Weathers continued to be known as a solid supporting actor.

Outside of Rocky he also played Dillon in sci-fi action favourite in Predator (1987) and Chubbs in the hugely popular Happy Gilmore (1996). He did get the opportunity to lead his own action comedy in 1988 when he played the title role in Action Jackson. His role as the Detroit cop Jackson was a crowd pleaser but despite some success, the studio decided against making it a franchise due to poor critical reviews.

Action Jackson was a big video hit, nonetheless, thanks in no small part to Weathers’ over-the-top performance. With a sharp script and stunts galore, it holds its own against the more renowned cop movies of the time, Beverley Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon.

Weathers has enjoyed a career resurgence over the last 5 years. He voiced Combat Carls in Toy Story 4 in 2017 and he plays Greef Karga in The Mandalorian.