RIP: The Best Carl Weathers Movies and TV Shows

The Master of Disaster, the King of Sting, the Count of Monte Fisto, the One and Only.

Sure, all those nicknames referred to boxer Apollo Creed, but they also capture the essence of the awesome actor who portrayed him, Carl Weathers. A former football player turned actor, Weathers worked his way through the B-movie market before getting picked to play Creed in the Rocky franchise.

Although he electrified audiences with his magnetism and moved them with his dramatic depth, Weathers never got the career he deserved. But even when the projects didn’t match the quality of his acting, Weathers always impressed, on the big screen and the small screen. To remove any doubt, check out the best Carl Weathers movies and TV shows.

1. Action Jackson (1988)

It took far too long for Weathers to get his first vehicle, but Action Jackson proved worth the wait. Directed by former stunt coordinator Craig R. Baxley, Action Jackson pits the titular disgraced cop against businessman/martial arts expert Peter Anthony Dellaplane (Craig T. Nelson).

Weathers makes for an ideal 80s action star, commanding the screen during the fight sequences and charming the viewers while he romances his leading ladies (played by Vanity and Sharon Stone). Even better, the script by Robert Reneau deals with union disruption, making Jackson more of a people’s hero than his contemporaries, played by Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Tailor-made for the actor, it should come as no surprise that Action Jackson features on of the great Carl Weathers performances.

2. Rocky (1976)

When writer/star Sylvester Stallone and director John G. Avildsen cast Carl Weathers in Rocky, they gave him an unenviable assignment: he needed to play a variation on Muhammed Ali, a charismatic and arrogant boxing champ called Apollo Creed, who sets up an exhibition match with blue-collar brawler Rocky Balboa.

That’s a thankless role, especially since the film asks viewers to pull for the hard-working, hard-luck Rocky instead of the boastful Creed. And yet, Weathers exceeds all expectations, winning the hearts of viewers without distracting from the hero's story, raising the stakes of the fight without ever tamping down Apollo’s flamboyant nature.

3. Predator (1987)

The image of Carl Weathers clasping hands with Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the stuff of internet legend, a testament to the bicep-bulging study of masculinity that is the 1987 film Predator.

Weathers plays a key role not just on a plot level, but on a thematic level as well. A veteran of action movies, Weathers reads as a recognizable tough guy for viewers, the exact sort of person who commits the carnage seen in the movie’s first half. But when director John McTiernan and screenwriters Jim Thomas and John Thomas set the titular monster against the commandos, the disarming death of Weathers’s Al Dillon demonstrates the tremendous threat that Schwarzenegger faces. Of course, it lands here as one of the best Carl Weathers movies.

4. Arrested Development (2004)

A lesser actor would not have even joined the cast of Arrested Development, let alone played the part with perfect comic timing. When Weathers shows up in the season one episode “Public Relations” (written by Mitchell Hurwitz, Courtney Lilly, and Abraham Higginbotham, and directed by Lee Shallat Chemel) playing a version of himself, it almost felt like a mean joke.

The Weathers of Arrested Development is a failed actor who makes ends meet by scraping together ingredients for a stew and scamming fools like would-be actor Dr. Tobias Fünke (David Cross). But Weathers plays the part with such a twinkle in his eye that viewers cannot help but laugh with him, not at him.

5. Rocky II (1979)

Even more than the title character, Rocky II pushes Weathers’s Apollo Creed into a new gear. After he almost lost to Rocky (Stallone) in the previous film, Apollo has lost his swagger and gained an angry edge, desperate to prove himself against the Italian Stallion.

Written and directed by Stallone, Rocky II focuses on Rocky adjusting to his newfound fame. But scenes of Apollo fighting back his doubts and preparing to put the Rocky incident behind him stand out. In those moments, Weathers proves that he isn’t just an impressive physical specimen — he’s a proper actor.

6. The Defiant Ones (1986)

Few actors would relish the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Sidney Poitier, at least not in a made-for-TV movie. Yet, Weathers makes the convict Cullen his own in the 1986 remake of The Defiant Ones, directed by David Lowell Rich.

Weathers stars alongside Robert Urich in the Tony Curtis role as fellow convict Joker. As the two of them go on the run, chained together, they must overcome their antipathy to survive an unjust system. The 1986 version doesn’t quite have the punch of the original film, but not because of the lead performances, which have a palpable edge.

7. Fortune Dane (1986)

The television series Fortune Dane knows what its audience wants. The opening title sequence consists of Weathers’s cop-turned-special agent working out, washing up, and suiting up for work, with plenty of close-ups on his muscled chest, shoulders, and thighs. Weathers does cut an impressive figure as the title character, but creator Ronald M. Cohen has more than just beefcake on his mind.

Cohen gives Fortune a tragic backstory with corrupted adoptive parents and makes him a hero for the people, as demonstrated by scenes of Dane playing football with local boys. Fortune Dane ran for just six episodes, none that transcend cheap prime-time network fare. But there’s a promise of a more complex and interesting hero in those episodes, potential for the scripts to reach the level of one of the best Carl Weathers performances.

8. Rocky III (1982)

Rocky III is the most enjoyable of the original franchise entries, in part because of the central role reversal. After Rocky gets beaten by the hungrier and angrier fighter Clubber Lang (Mr. T), Apollo steps in as the Italian Stallion’s new trainer, taking over for the late Micky (Burgess Meredith).

The part lets Weathers play Apollo as a likable character without reservation, someone whom the audience cheers for all the way. Again written and directed by Stallone, Rocky III retains some anger for Apollo — see the scene in which he stares down Clubber — but it’s a lot more fun seeing him play Rocky’s pal. For that reason, it lands among the best Carl Weathers movies.

9. Happy Gilmore (1996)

Part of the magic of Weathers’s performance as Chubbs Petersen is the fact that the character would fit well in a regular inspirational sports drama. One could imagine Weathers playing a past-his-prime athlete who inspires the next generation by helping an upstart smooth down his rough edges.

Weathers nails all the inspirational speeches he gives the titular hockey player turned golfer, played by Adam Sandler. But when Happy Gilmore, directed by Dennis Dugan and written by Sandler and Tim Herlihy, turns toward the absurd, Weathers acquits himself just as well.

10. The Mandalorian (2019)

Viewers were already happy when the premier episode of The Mandalorian, directed by Dave Filoni and written by Jon Favreau, leaned into the Western vibes that influenced the original Star Wars trilogy. But when Carl Weathers showed up as Greef Karga, the series got that much better.

That sense of excitement returns every time Karga pops up over the show’s first three seasons, bringing a playfulness and gravitas to the series, which too often gets mired in larger universe lore. As Karga, Weathers plays a man whose natural dignity covers a haunted past, full of both compromises and heroism.

11. Street Justice (1991 – 1993)

Created by David Levinson, Mark Lisson, and David H. Balkan, the syndicated series Street Justice tried to tap into a market of genre fans who wanted a weekly action show. Weathers plays Detective Adam Beaudreaux, a Vietnam vet who cannot forget his mistakes overseas, who teams with young martial arts expert Grady Jameson (Bryan Genesse).

Street Justice has fun with all of the genre tropes, and Weathers relishes his part. Even when the Vietnam flashbacks get too sappy, Weathers underplays his characters’ torment, making them believable. Even better, Weathers nails the buddy camaraderie with Jameson, playing both a father figure and a tired veteran.

12. Toy Story 4 (2019)

The Toy Story franchise already had some fantastic characters, including Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head and Ned Beatty as a pink bear/prison warden. Toy Story 4, written by Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom and directed by Josh Cooley, quadruples the cast list, adding Keanu Reeves as Canadian stuntman Duke Kaboom, sketch comics Key and Peele as Ducky and Bunny, and Tony Hale as talking spork Forky.

Within that stuffed cast, Weathers stands out as Combat Carl, a G.I. Joe-style action figure. Bringing his well-honed combination of tough-guy gruffness and a desire to coach others, Weathers holds his own alongside the beloved other toys. 

13. Tour of Duty (1989)

The military drama Tour of Duty ran for three seasons on NBC and received strong reviews if not the highest ratings. Weathers joined the cast for the final season, playing new commander Colonel Brewster. Weathers’s arrival signaled a change in direction for the series, created by Steve Duncan and L. Travis Clark, as the network hoped to boost ratings with more action-heavy stories.

The gambit failed, but not because of Weathers, who played Colonel Brewster as a no-nonsense soldier who fought to restrain his natural empathy in order to complete his impossible mission.

14. Regular Show (2011)

The absurd Cartoon Network series Regular Show, created by J. G. Quintel, pulled in a lot of surprising stars for whacky cameos. Carl Weathers's character, the God of Basketball, just shows up in two episodes, but no one will forget them.

A lanky figure with a basketball for a head and glowing gold cape, the God of Basketball boasts that he can teach anyone to love the sport, something he puts to the test with Regular Show protagonists Mordecai and Rigby. Even though the episodes surround the God of Basketball with weird situations, Weathers plays it straight, voicing the character as an earnest and insistent mentor, making it that much funnier.

15. Death Hunt (1981)

As Sundog, Weathers plays just a supporting role in the gritty Western Death Hunt, written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor and directed by James Bond veteran Peter Hunt. Sundog is the right-hand man to Sergeant Edgar Millen (Lee Marvin) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, whose quiet Yukon home gets turned upside down when forced to hunt trapper Albert Johnson (Charles Bronson).

Weathers has fun with the B-movie trappings of the story, even when they get more than a bit uncomfortable, and nails a monologue about his character’s pro baseball dreams.

16. Rocky IV (1985)

Of the four original Rocky movies, the absurd fourth entry gives Weathers the least to do. Apollo exists in that movie just to die at the hands of Russian Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), an incident that inspires Rocky to come out of retirement and end the Cold War.

Ever the egoist, writer and director Stallone diminishes Weathers in Rocky IV, but the actor makes the most of his few scenes. The song and dance he does during the “Living in America” performance shows Weathers at his most brilliant, while Apollo’s death scene shows him at his most vulnerable.

17. In the Heat of the Night (1993 – 1995)

Although he doesn’t play Virgil Tibbs, the television series In the Heat of the Night finds Weathers once again stepping into an adaptation of a movie that starred Sydney Poitier. Howard Rollins plays Tibbs in the TV show In the Heat of the Night, based on the 1967 Norman Jewison movie of the same name, with Caroll O’Conner as Bill Gillespie, whom Rod Steiger portrayed in the film.

Weathers joined the cast in 1993 as Hampton Forbes, with the season seven premiere “Child’s Play,” written by James Lee Barrett, Mitchell Schneider, and John Ball and directed by Harry Harris. As the replacement for Gillespie, who gets voted out of office, Forbes brings a new level of tension to the series and a different approach to the show’s exploration of racism in the American South.

18. Dangerous Passion (1990)

Some distributors gave Dangerous Passion the title Action Jackson II, but that’s a misnomer. Not only does Weathers not reprise his role as cop Jericho Jackson, playing instead mechanic Kyle Western, but Dangerous Passion is not action but full noir.

Written by Brian Taggert and directed by Michael Miller, Dangerous Passion follows Western as he gets involved with a charismatic gangster (Billy Dee Williams). When he falls for the gangster’s wife (Lonette McKee), Kyle must go on the run to leave his criminal past behind him. Weathers and Williams both relish their parts, and the former makes a great complex noir hero. But Miller’s lackadaisical direction undercuts the tension Weathers brings to the movie.

19. Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2017)

Like Regular Show, Star vs. the Forces of Evil doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would draw the attention of Weathers. Created by Daron Nefcy for Disney, the animated series follows the misadventures of alien princess Star Butterfly (voiced by Eden Sher), who befriends human Marco Diaz (Adam McArthur). Together, the duo gets into wacky magical scrapes, sometimes encountering Omnitraxus Prime, voiced by Weathers.

With his skull face and starfield body, Omnitraxus Prime looks unlike any other character that Weathers has played. But his cheerful demeanor and helpful attitude put him right alongside Weathers’s late career roles.

20. The Hostage Heart (1977)

The TV movie The Hostage Heart has a lot of characters, including a tough cop (B-movie legend Cameron Mitchell), a supportive wife (M*A*S*H*‘s Sally Kellerman), and so many more. With so many other faces to follow, it’s understandable that Weathers gets relegated to just a few scenes as the bag man waiting to pick up the ransom money. But even in these small moments, Weathers shines, giving his character a calm and intelligence one wouldn’t expect from a minor player. 

21. Friday Foster (1975)

Based on the comic strip of the same name, the Blaxploitation movie Friday Foster stars Pam Grier as a reporter who investigates the attempted assassination of Blake Tarr (Thalmus Rasulala), the world’s first African American millionaire.

Director Arthur Marks and writer Orville Hampton gather a cast of greats, including Yaphet Kotto as PI Colt Hawkins and Eartha Kitt as Madame Rena. Weathers, in his first credited film role, gets a small part as the muscle Yarbro, and he makes an immediate impression.

22. Semi-Tough (1977)

Part anti-establishment farce, part hicksploitation romp, part sports comedy, Semi-Tough strings bits about reckless footballers and self-help gurus with a story about the genial rivalry between good ol’ boy Billy Clyde Puckett (Burt Reynolds) and hippie-dippy Shake Tiller (Kris Kristofferson) for the love of their best friend Barbara Jane Bookman (Jill Clayburgh).

A veteran of both sports flicks and satires, director Michael Ritchie handles the subject matter well, but writers Walter Bernstein, Dan Jenkins, and Ring Lardner Jr. cover far too many subjects for an effective comedy. Weathers appears in just a couple of scenes as Dreamer Tatum, captain of an opposing football team, but his playful banter with Reynolds makes for one of the better parts in Semi-Tough.

23. Chicago Justice (2017)

Although it was part of the very successful franchise of primetime shows set in the Windy City, Chicago Justice failed to capture the attention of viewers and lasted just one season.

As its name indicates, Chicago Justice follows the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, exploring the complexities of the legal system. As one of the lead actors, Weathers played State's Attorney Mark Jefferies. And while Jefferies does have a military background, his stories relied on more than just his brawn, allowing Weathers to show off his impressive dramatic chops.

24. Assault on Devil’s Island (1997)

Assault on Devil’s Island and its sequel, Assault on Death Mountain find Weathers at a low point, starring alongside Terry “Hulk” Hogan and Shannon Tweed. First aired on TNT as part of the channel’s WCW promotion, Assault on Devil’s Island gives Hogan the most attention. And as is the case in all of Hogan’s non-wrestling outings, he’s wooden and unconvincing.

Director Jon Cassar and screenwriter Calvin Clements Jr. lather the heroic nonsense on Hogan’s character Mike McBride, which accentuates the problem. In honesty, Weathers doesn’t give the most committed takes to his character Roy Brown, an old pal of McBride. But even dialing it in, Weathers has more charisma than any of his co-stars.