While his cause of death is now unknown, Burton’s sister, Loretta Kelly, said that he had regularly been in hospital over the past year, according to the BBC.
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Tony Burton – the former boxer and actor best known for playing Apollo Creed’s trainer in the Rocky franchise – has passed away at the age of 78. “We didn’t talk about (Rocky) a lot”.
His “Rocky” character trained Carl Weathers’ Apollo Creed in the first two movies in the series, then became the corner man for Stallone’s Rocky Balboa through the 2006 release “Rocky Balboa”.
He wrote: “His intensity and talent helped make the Rocky movies successful”.
A native of Flint, Michigan, the actor won Flint Golden Gloves light heavyweight titles in 1955 and again in 1957, before fighting professionally for a brief while. In 1988 he told an interviewer he served 3 1/2 years in prison in California for robbery but that he developed his interest in acting while serving his sentence. He went on to appear in the Rocky franchise, as well as The Shining, Stir Crazy, Assault on Precinct 13 and The Toy and Hook.
Prior to his passing, Burton was living with his wife, Rae, in California.
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See video of his warmup speech to Stallone from “Rocky 6” below.
