(via Burt Young, ‘Rocky’ Actor Who Played Complex Tough Guys, Dies at 83 - The New York Times)
Burt Young, a burly Queens-bred actor who leveraged a weary gravitas and bare-knuckled demeanor to build a prolific career as a Hollywood tough guy in films like “Chinatown,” “Once Upon a Time in America” and, most notably, “Rocky,” for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, died on Oct. 8 in Los Angeles. He was 83.
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@slang_711: BURT YOUNG and I did LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN together. Burt was really such a splendid man. He was extremely kind and supportive from day 1 on the picture. First meeting he said to me, “You gotta tough role. But I hear good things about you, kid. You need anything?’ I said, “Like what?” Burt kinda shrugged and with a wry grin says, “Scotch?” Makes me smile to remember.
Another time we were having a birthday party for Hubert ‘Cubby’ Shelby on a yacht on the Hudson River. Big sheet cake with candles. We sing. And no knife to cut the cake. No problem. Burt whips out the most lethal gravity knife I’d ever seen and he slices the cake like that’s what the shiv was meant for. Then he licks the icing off the blade.
Scotch and cake. The pleasure, the privilege, was mine.
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Burt Young, who played Paulie in the Rocky franchise, was actually trained by Cus D'Amato (who trained Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson) and went 17-0 as a professional.
According to Wikipedia: Young served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959. While in the Marine Corps, he won 32 of 34 boxing bouts. He later turned pro and compiled a 17-0 record under three different aliases. His manager was Cus D'Amato.
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Rocky V, Spanish lobby card. 1990
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