In the “Rocky” franchise, Burton portrayed Duke, the trainer of boxer Apollo Creed, Rocky’s initial nemesis and eventual best friend, and later of Rocky himself. “Rest in peace”, E!
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Upon hearing the news on Twitter, actor Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) tweeted: “Sad news”.
Burton, who played a boxing trainer in all six of the Rocky films, died Thursday, his sister Loretta Kelley told CNN. Burton continued the role as Rocky Balboa’s trainer in the next four Rocky films, including his final appearance in the 2006 Rocky Balboa.
Burton graduated from Flint Northern High School in 1955, becoming an all-star football and baseball player. Kelley revealed Tony had been hospitalized several times throughout the past year but was never given an official diagnosis from his doctors.
In “Rocky II”, Mr. Burton tries to talk the champion, who barely won that first fight, out of giving Balboa a rematch.
He also had memorable scenes in the 1970s films “The Shining” and “Stir Crazy” but is mostly linked to the Rocky movies.
Burton had been living in California for 30 years with his wife, Rae, before his death. Often, its the big movie stars that we remember most.
USA Today notes: “The “Rocky” films helped the Flint, Mich., native, who had begun acting in 1974, to parlay his two Golden Gloves light-heavyweight titles into a Hollywood career”. “We’ve got to hit this guy so hard he’ll think he tried kissing the expressway!”
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Sylvester, who is nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Rocky spin-off movie Creed, worked alongside Tony in the first six movies in the series. His son Martin died of a heart attack at the age of 43 in May 2014.
