Biography of Carl Weathers

Carl Weathers (born January 14, 1948) is an American actor, formerly a professional American football player.

Weathers was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was a professional football player with the Oakland Raiders until he retired in 1974 to became an actor. He had his first parts in two Arthur Marks directed 1970s blaxploitation films: Bucktown and Friday Foster, both in 1975.

In 1976, he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in Rocky as Apollo Creed, a role he would reprise in the first three Rocky sequels in 1979, 1982, and 1985. He also starred in a number of action films, both theatrically and on television, including: Force 10 From Navarone (1978), Predator (1987), and Action Jackson (1988). He also had parts in the Adam Sandler comedies Happy Gilmore (1996), Little Nicky (2000) and Eight Crazy Nights (2002). During the final season of In the Heat of the Night, his character of Hampton Forbes replaced Bill Gillespie at the chief of the Sparta, Mississippi police. He continued that role in the television movies based on the series, his noted other tv role was on the cop show Street Justice where he played Sgt. Adam Beaudreaux.

Weathers most recently played himself in three episodes of the Fox Television comedy series Arrested Development.

Outside of acting he is a member of both Big Brothers and the United States Olympic Committee.