Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#700
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Carl Weathers represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 49 years in, and Carl is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Carl Weathers appears in 17 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Carl. Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer is the clearest case: a film rated 7.9 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for documentary, comedy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Derek Wayne Johnson, Josh Cooley, Tom Brady and others, Carl Weathers helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022) as Self · Rocky (1976) as Apollo Creed · Toy Story 4 (2019) as Combat Carl (voice)
Career snapshot
Ranked #700 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
17
1973–2022
Career length
49 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.9
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Average Nutevio score
6.9
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.9
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
Most frequent director
Sylvester Stallone
3 films together
Longest collaboration
3×
With Sylvester Stallone
Most common genre
Drama
7 titles
Average runtime
1h 36m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.0
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
2020s
7.7 average MV
The 2020s are where the work and the material meet. Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer, 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
2020s
7.7
Across 2 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
2020s
7.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Rocky II, Force 10 from Navarone, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Most productive era
1970s
5 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.25 films | 7.12 films | — | — | — | — |
| Action | 7.01 film | 6.62 films | — | — | — | — |
| Thriller | — | 7.71 film | — | — | — | — |
| Comedy | — | 5.51 film | 6.71 film | 5.32 films | 7.52 films | — |
| Crime | 7.01 film | — | — | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1973Magnum Force
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Demonstrator.
Highest rated performance
1976Rocky
7.9 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1987Predator
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2022Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer
The current state of the argument, as Self.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
17 of 17 films
as Al Dillon
Directed by John McTiernan
as Self (archive footage)
Directed by Derek Wayne Johnson
as Combat Carl / Combat Carl Jr. (Voice)
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Al Dillon
Predator (1987)
Performance score8.0
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Al Dillon gives Carl Weathers a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Self
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022)
Performance score7.9
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Apollo Creed
Rocky (1976)
Performance score7.9
Rocky asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Apollo Creed is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self (archive footage)
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020)
Performance score7.8
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Al Dillon
Start here. Predator is the clearest statement of what Carl Weathers does — accessible, 107 minutes, and rated 7.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Carl at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Rocky (1976)
A deliberate change of key after Predator — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Toy Story of Terror! (2013)
A deliberate change of key after Rocky — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020)
A deliberate change of key after Toy Story of Terror! — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer (2022)
Keeps the documentary register of 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Sylvester Stallone
Director
3 films together
Notably Rocky II
Ted Post
Director
1 film together
Notably Magnum Force
John G. Avildsen
Director
1 film together
Notably Rocky
Steven Spielberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Guy Hamilton
Director
1 film together
Notably Force 10 from Navarone
Peter R. Hunt
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Hunt
John McTiernan
Director
1 film together
Notably Predator
Craig R. Baxley
Director
1 film together
Notably Action Jackson
Dennis Dugan
Director
1 film together
Notably Happy Gilmore
Steven Brill
Director
1 film together
Notably Little Nicky
Tom Brady
Director
1 film together
Notably The Comebacks
Josh Cooley
Director
1 film together
Notably Toy Story 4
Derek Wayne Johnson
Director
1 film together
Notably 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Sylvester Stallone
Director
3 films together · 7.2 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Rocky IIJohn G. Avildsen
Director
1 film together · 7.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RockyJosh Cooley
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Toy Story 4John McTiernan
Director
1 film together · 7.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
PredatorDerek Wayne Johnson
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a ClassicSteven Spielberg
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Close Encounters of the Third KindTed Post
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Magnum ForceDennis Dugan
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Happy GilmorePeter R. Hunt
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death HuntGuy Hamilton
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Force 10 from NavaroneSteven Brill
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Little NickyCraig R. Baxley
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Action JacksonTom Brady
Director
1 film together · 4.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The ComebacksSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Rocky
as Apollo Creed
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Toy Story 4
as Combat Carl (voice)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Rocky
as Apollo Creed
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Magnum Force
as Demonstrator
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Predator
as Al Dillon
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Carl Weathers has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
49 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
7 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Rocky
as Apollo Creed
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Predator
as Al Dillon
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Toy Story 4
as Combat Carl (voice)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Little Nicky
as Chubbs (uncredited)
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Predator
as Al Dillon
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Predator
as Al Dillon
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Magnum Force
as Demonstrator
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Toy Story 4
as Combat Carl (voice)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Elliot Page
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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