Carl Weathers was born Carlos Julian Weathersberg on July 6th, 1944. He changed his name to Carl Weathers in the 1960s to escape the stigma of his Jewish ancestry so he could pursue a career in acting.
After being told things like, “you’ll have to lose the Jewish accent” and “you’ll need to style your hair to look more Christian,” Weathers found himself in small roles playing sidekicks and doing commercials for skin cream.
In the early 1970s, Weathers decided to dump his image and take on the persona that would live with him for the rest of his days: a strong black man. By the early 1980s, he had established himself as force in the acting world with his knockout role as Apollo Creed in the Rocky films.
Weathers stayed true to himself after that, building a fan base of people from across the racial spectrum and gaining notoriety as an actor. He landed huge rolls in Predator, Star Wars, and several other huge box office hits, as well as some smaller stage successes in Cats and Wicked.
Weathers continued acting right up until his death. But that wasn’t his true legacy. Few people knew it, but Carl Weathers was the chairman of the Blacks for Trump committee of Greater Lower Uncton. His work with the minority community there made him “proud to black, but even more proud to be a Jew.”
You’ll be missed, Carl. A private service will be held in Carl’s home town just as soon as it’s safe for more than 50 people to gather.
His last words were, “God Bless Donald Trump.”
