Tony Burton is an actor, professional boxer, and a famous American football player at the school level. Best known for her role as Tony “Duke” Evers, manager and trainer of Appollo Creed, in the Rocky series. The only franchise actor besides Sylvester Stallone and Bert Young who has played in all six parts of the series.
Childhood and youth
Tony Burton was born March 23, 1937 in Flint, Michigan. He studied at Northam School, where he played for the local football team in the halfback position. He was one of the team captains and was repeatedly recognized as its most valuable player. He was part of the team of the best state football players.
In addition to football, Tony Burton was also fond of baseball and played for the school team as a pitcher. With him, the Northam baseball team won the city championship.
Boxer career
Back in school years, Burton became interested in boxing and won the youth tournament "Golden Gloves" of Flint in light light heavyweight in 1955 and 1957. In the same 1957, he won the Golden Gloves at the state level, took part in the Champions Tournament in Chicago, where he dropped out in the semifinals.
In 1958, he began his career as a professional boxer. In just two years, he spent eight fights, won four of them, one ended in a draw. The most famous fight involving Tony Burton is his fight with Lamar Clark, the world record holder for the number of knockouts in a row (he had 44 of them).
At the time of the fight with Burton, Clark already had 38 knockouts in a row behind him and he was the tenth boxer in the light heavyweight rating. Tony managed to hold out for five rounds, but in the sixth he still lost the fight by knockout.
Jail
After this fight, Tony Burton ended his boxing career and soon ended up in jail. He was sentenced by the court for three and a half years for robbery.
Burton himself spoke positively of the time spent behind bars. It was there that he finally received a school certificate, and then a diploma from the University of California. In prison, he became interested in theater and decided to start an actor's career after his release.
Movies about Rocky Balboa
After his release, Burton began participating in small theatrical productions in Los Angeles and soon began to receive small roles in popular television series and low-budget films.
The most important role in Tony Burton's filmography is Tony "Duke" Evers, nicknamed "Superman" in the 1976 film "Rocky". In the first two films of the series, the character acted as a coach of Appollo Creed, a rival to Rocky Balboa. He can mainly be seen during battle scenes when he gives Creed instructions on battle tactics.
After the defeat of Appollo and his departure from boxing, Evers went to Los Angeles, where he began to train youth. However, after the death of Coach Rocky, Creed agrees to help Balboa prepare for the return fight with Clubber Lang and brings him to California to work with Duke.
In the fourth franchise film, Creed, who decided to return to big boxing, dies in the ring at the hands of Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Tony helps Rocky prepare for the battle with Drago and travels with him to the Soviet Union in order to be present in the corner of Balboa and help him with advice.
In the fifth film, Duke appears in one of the first scenes and after Balboa retired, apparently, again retires to Los Angeles to train young people. After the failure of the fifth picture for a long time, Stallone did not shoot the continuation of the franchise, but in 2006 the movie "Rocky Balboa" was released. Tony Burton again returned to the main role of his career. Duke in this film helps the sixty-year-old Rocky prepare for an exhibition battle with the reigning world champion.
In the spin-off "Creed" the character does not appear, but among the heroes you can see his son, Duke Jr.
Other acting
Other popular films with Tony Burton include the iconic action movie "Attack on the Thirteenth Section" by John Carpenter, which was released in the same year as Rocky. After almost thirty years, the actor appeared in a small role in a remake of the picture.
In 1980, Burton starred in a small role in the horror film of the great director Stanley Kubrick "Shine." Initially, he was supposed to shoot only two weeks, but his skills in playing chess conquered Kubrick, who himself was an excellent chess player, and Tony Burton stayed on the set for another six weeks, playing daily with the director.
In 1982, Burton co-starred in the comedy film Toy with Richard Pryor in the title role. In 1991, he took part in Steven Spielberg’s Hook project. In addition, Tony Burton often starred in the films of the genre of "blacklisting" and horror.
Also, the actor often appeared on television, where he participated in such famous TV shows as "Team A", "The Incredible Hulk", "California Road Patrol", "Detective Agency" Moonlight "and" Twin Peaks ".
