Actor Tony Burton, best known for his part in the ‘Rocky’ film franchise, has passed away at the age of 78 after being ill for several months. The cause of death and the nature of his illness is as yet unknown, but he was allegedly too sick to get to see the latest ‘Rocky’ instalment, ‘Creed’, at the end of 2015.
‘Rocky’ star Tony Burton dies
Reports say that he’d made various hospital visits over the last few months, but finally succumbed on Thursday (February 25th 2016) in his resident state of California according to his sister Loretta ‘Peaches’ Kelley.
He played Tony ‘Duke’ Evers in the ‘Rocky’ films, the trainer for boxer Apollo Creed, and then later for his former rival Rocky Balboa, played by Sylvester Stallone. Born in Flint, Michigan, Burton was originally a boxer himself having won Flint Golden Gloves in the fifties.
‘There’s a scene in the restaurant of that movie [Creed] where his picture is on the wall’, Kelley told Michigan Live. ‘We didn’t talk about [Rocky] a lot. I mean we were excited, but other people were more excited. Whenever he would come home [to Flint] other people would just come over.’
More: Read our review for ‘Creed’
His career also included roles in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’, the Golden Globe nominated comedy series ‘Frank’s Place’, 1990 mystery drama ‘Twin Peaks’, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Hook’, another boxing movie called ‘Knockout’ and William A. Baker’s 2003 horror ‘Exorcism’. His last recorded film appearance was in 2007 comedy horror ‘Hack!’ which also starred ‘Days of Our Lives’ actor Jay Kenneth Johnson and ‘Scrubs’ star Travis Schuldt. Curiously, he was also announced to re-team with Baker on another film ‘The Truth About the War in Heaven: Declaration of War’ in which he was apparently to reprise his role from ‘Exorcism’.
Always an active sportsman at heart, having been a highly valued member of his school football and baseball teams as well as champion boxer, his acting career began after a stint in prison for robbery. He emerged a changed man, with a high school diploma and an ambition which he carried with him for the rest of his life.
‘It’s just like someone in my own family passed. Whenever we got together we would reminisce on old times’, said a former classmate, Gerald Moore. His ‘Rocky’ co-star Carl Weathers also paid tribute to Burton on Twitter. ‘Sad news. RIP Tony Burton. His intensity and talent helped make the Rocky movies successful’, he said.
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