By Adam Crohn

It’s an odd thing, that somehow doesn’t surprise me, how much my life has been affected by actor Carl Weathers. He’s always been a favorite of mine. I know where that started, but I wasn’t sure who he was at the time. When I was a kid I was obsessed with turtles. One Saturday, probably on Svengoolie or some other weekend afternoon movie special, I caught this picture about a giant mutant turtle that was ravaging some seaside community, and one of the heroes was this black guy with a cool, but unkempt afro. I was glued! But I never got the title, and as this was in the 80s and it was a made-for-TV movie, it wasn’t until I was an adult and they created Google that I was able to find the killer turtle masterpiece, The Bermuda Depths, staring Carl Weathers.

A few years later in 1987, this alien movie came out called Predator. I was too young to see it in the theaters, but it must have been the summer of 88’ or 89’ when it was released on VHS that I got to know who Carl Weathers was. I remember a school friend of mine at recess mentioning that his dad had bought the movie and we had exactly 2 hours to get home after school and watch it in his basement before his parents got home from work. Man, I’ve never hustled so fast in my life, or at least up until that point. The movie is one of the few flawless sci-fi pictures ever created, from John McTiernan’s directing, to one of the best ensemble casts ever put together, to the writing, the FX, and one of the most timeless creature designs of all time. But there are two scenes that upon that first viewing as a kid I’ll never forget seeing for the first time. Those scenes were the opening where we see the Predator’s little pod ejected out of the larger ship, which meant no matter what happens from here on out, there are more Predators out there. That blew my mind. The other scene is the most insane handshake the world will ever see. And up until that point, I didn’t think it was possible for someone to rival Arnold Schwarzenegger on the movie muscle front, and my mind was blown seeing Weathers hold his own and basically arm wrestle in the air with Arnold. “Dillon! You son of a bitch.”

After Predator I had to know more about this guy. The next year he got a leading role in a decently popular movie that I’m sure was intended to be the beginning of his own franchise. You look at the cast of Action Jackson and it’s a complete mystery why it pretty much just came and went. It was loaded with movie and pop culture figures of the time that everyone wanted to see more of. It had Vanity from the Prince universe, Bill Duke from Predator having some fun, a fresh-faced Sharon Stone, and Poltergeist dad doing karate of all things. Which was perfect because everybody was doing karate back then, and it was ok.

Over the years Action Jackson has become a staple of mine when I want to see Carl Weathers cut loose. But it wasn’t until high school that I realized the power that Weathers had created with what is still his most well-known character to date. In 1995, after years of being bullied and beaten up on a daily basis in school, I finally became cool when my brother and I started a band. We recruited a few other cool dudes to play with us, and we started making equally cool music. But we were stuck on a name and we had our first gig, our school’s Battle of the Bands, on the horizon. I’ll never forget the day I was walking in the hall to class when one of our guitarists, Phil G, magically appeared from around a column where I swear no one was standing two seconds earlier and told me he’d come up with the name for our band. He wanted to save it until practice that afternoon because he didn’t want anyone passing in the hall to overhear us and steal it, but I made him tell me. After all, we’d been playing music together for weeks and didn’t have a name because we were intentionally waiting for the most epic name to show itself since we were going to be playing with the likes of Bob’s Chicken Shack and Groovin’ Village. Two band names I still envy.  So, Phil G leans in to keep it secret and safe and he says “Apollo Creed”.

At the time, none of us were really Rocky fans. The franchise was in the zeitgeist and had been for over a decade at that point, so we all knew who Apollo Creed was, he was the guy from Predator dancing to James Brown! But those two words together were perfect. They flowed and hit hard, and when you heard the music we were writing and said “That’s an Apollo Creed song”, it just worked. Apollo Creed went on past high school, and we gave it our best shot. I still look back almost 30 years later with so much gratitude that I got to experience what I did with Apollo Creed for those years. We wrote some music that packed just as much punch as James Brown’s Living in America, and just try to imagine Apollo Creed entering the ring to the music of Apollo Creed. Complete bonkers. And yes, to answer the question that’s keeping you on the edge of your seat: The first four Rocky movies have now entered my annual rotation of must-see movie rewatches sessions.

Around that time, Weathers was doing a pivot and honing his comedy chops in stuff like Happy Gilmore, Arrested Development, and Toy Story. And it was so good to see him make me laugh. But Something I thought I’d never see is Carl Weathers in Star Wars. And though his role as Greef Karga in The Mandalorian isn’t intended as comedy, I think it’s the funniest role of his career. And I mean that in the best way. Star Wars is my thing. It’s been my go-to since I was a tiny kid, and it was the first movie I saw in a theater, ever. I’ll never forget my dad taking us to see Return of the Jedi in the theater in 1983, and it’s been with me, literally (I have a tattoo), since. This is even more poetic because my tattoo is a Boba Fett tattoo, and to quickly connect the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon: Boba Fett is my favorite character in Star Wars, Boba Fett is a Mandalorian, I never imagined seeing a whole TV show dedicated to Mandalorians or the return of Boba Fett after his death in Return of the Jedi (my first theater movie), and Carl Weathers is one of the stars of the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian. Again, complete bonkers.

When I say Weathers is funny in The Mandalorian, it’s a tribute to the nuance he gave the character of Greef Karga. I think most people look at the character as another scoundrel of the galaxy turned diplomat and protector of the people. But just the way he delivers the word “MANDO!”, it’s like he’s throwing a jab at this guy who has based his whole life around not taking his hat off. It’s kind of ridiculous and I think Greef knows that. The adoration he shows for Grogu, and how over the top he takes the character is not just a joy to watch, but it’s one of the few roles I’ve seen where the actor’s actual joy for the character is blatantly evident on screen. Weathers even went on to direct a couple of episodes of the show that are still some of my favorites because they show that he’s paying attention, knows the lore, and appreciates the point he’s come to in his life.

Before I left Twitter, I had started following him because I caught one of his tweets retweeted by someone else and I noticed the hashtag #BePeace. It turns out that the hashtag was Carl Weathers’ own personal sign-off that he ended every one of his tweets with. He was a pretty active user, and every single thing he posted was something to better the people he was affecting. There just isn’t enough of that out there, and there sure aren’t enough people who are community-minded putting genuine, selfless positivity into the galaxy. Carl Weathers really seemed like he wanted there to be peace. Peace in himself, peace in those of us who followed his career or even just his tweets, and enough of some semblance of peace to go around for everyone else.

He is a genuine loss, and now the galaxy has one less peacemaker. I hope some of us can carry that forward. #BePeace