So how did Weathers transition from football to acting? Carl got his first parts in two blaxploitation films directed by his longtime friend Arthur Marks: Bucktown and Friday Foster both released in 1975. Weathers also appeared in an episode of the 1970s CBS-TV sitcom Good Times entitled “The Nude”, portraying an angry husband who suspected his wife of cheating on him with J.J. 
In 1976, Carl auditioned for and was selected for the part of, and starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in the Robert Chartoff-Irwin Winkler film Rocky as Apollo Creed, a role he would reprise in the next three Rocky films in 1979, 1982 and 1985. For the final film in the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa, Stallone asked Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky movies. Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren acquiesced, but Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie, even though his character died in Rocky IV. Stallone refused and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for Rocky flashbacks from the previous movies. They instead used footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers…
