Carl Weathers, best known for his memorable roles in Predator, Happy Gilmore and four Rocky films, has passed away at the age of 76.

His family issued a statement saying that the former athlete-turned-actor had died peacefully in his sleep yesterday.

Born in New Orleans, Weathers played college football at San Diego State University and later signed for the Oakland Raiders. After retiring from the sport in 1974, he then pursued an acting career with his first two cinematic appearances coming in two blaxploitation flicks; Friday Foster (1975) and Bucktown (1975).

During that period, he also popped up in a variety of television series that included episodes of S.W.A.T. (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man (1975), Cannon (1975) and Switch (1975).

Shortly after, Weathers saw his career implode with his crucial role as Apollo Creed, the heavyweight champion of the world who gave Sylvester Stallone’s journeyman fighter Rocky Balboa a shot at the title in the sports drama Rocky (1976).

Despite its small budget, the film was a universal hit and went on to score four Oscar wins including the coveted Best Picture prize. As to be expected, Weathers reprised his role as Creed in three Rocky sequels with the character fatefully killed off in the ring by Russian heavyweight Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV (1985).

During the success of Rocky, Weathers continued to appear in different projects ranging from series like Starsky and Hutch (1976), Barnaby Jones (1976) and The Streets of San Francisco (1977), as well as notable films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), and Death Hunt (1981).

He soon landed another memorable role as ill-fated Colonel Al Dillon alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the hit sci-fi thriller Predator (1987) and followed that up with cinematic appearances in Action Jackson (1988) and Hurricane Smith (1992).

During that period, Weathers also committed to two crime series in the form of Street Justice (1991-93) and In the Heat of the Night (1993-95). Shortly after, he enjoyed a memorable turn as one-handed golf coach Derick “Chubbs” Peterson opposite Adam Sandler’s angry golfer in the hysterical sports comedy Happy Gilmore (1995).

In his later years, Weathers made his presence felt in other recognisable series including The Shield (2003-07), Arrested Development (2004-13), ER (2008), Brothers (2009), Psych (2010), Colony (2016), and Magnum P.I. (2018). He also played the character of Mark Jefferies across multiple television programmes Chicago Fire (2016-17), Chicago P.D. (2016-17), Chicago Justice (2017) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2018).

Having provided the voice of Combat Carl in the Pixar animated sequel Toy Story 4 (2019), Weathers marked his acting career off with a recurring role as Bounty Hunter Guilds’ agent Greef Karga in multiple episodes of the hit Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019-23).

His performance in the Series 3 episode ‘Chapter 12: The Siege’ earned him a sole Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor.

Weathers is survived by two children.