Burt Young is the Oscar-nominated actor who plays Paulie, Rocky Balboa’s brother-in-law. Cliff Movies starring Sylvester Stallone are dead, his manager confirms to PEOPLE. He was 83 years old.
“Burt was an actor with tremendous emotional range. “He can make you cry and scare you to death,” Young’s manager, Lynda Bensky, told PEOPLE. “But the real emotion I experienced was the poignancy of his soul. That’s where it came from.”
Young died Oct. 8 in Los Angeles, Young’s daughter, Anne Morea Steingieser, said. New York Timesfirst reported his death on Wednesday.
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Young, who adopted the name Burt Young when he started acting, appeared in over 160 films and television programs. Throughout his prolific career, he has become a reliable character actor, able to portray tough guys in gangs or workers just trying to make it.
One of these working male characters was Paulie, Rocky Balboa’s best friend and brother of his wife, Adrian. Young’s performance in the first match Cliff The film earned him an Oscar nomination, and he would continue to reprise the role in each film. Cliff throughout the movie Rocky Balboa In 2006.
Young said in 2009: Sweet Science he was the only actor cast Cliff who didn’t have to audition. Young recalled that Stallone saw him at the MGM park and told the former U.S. Marine that he should be in the movie.
“I thought the script had the clearest street prose I’ve ever read,” Young said of Stallone’s 2009 Oscar-nominated screenplay. “Stallone is not just a workaholic, he is a genius who always looks three years ahead. “He has a real eye for what’s going on in the world.”
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The actor, who was also a professional boxer for a short time before studying acting with Lee Strasberg, started his film and television career in 1969. CliffShe starred opposite James Caan. Cinderella Liberty, Gambler And Killer Elite. Outside Cliff Young has also appeared in films Once Upon a Time in America and its parts M*A*S*H, Beretta, Miami Vice, Columbo, The Sopranos And Russian doll.
“There are different movies that I like for different reasons,” Young said. Media Mikes When asked about his favorite movie to make in 2011. “Location is always a factor and the people involved are also important. The creativity of the script is as important as the depth of the character and how far I’m allowed to take that character. I really liked some of the work I wrote. Of course I love the first one Cliff film. I also liked some of the older episodes. beretta “That won an Emmy and helped revamp the show.”
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Outside of acting, Young had a passion for painting, which developed when he was 11 and won the New York City Parks contest, he said. Long Island Pulse He found painting liberating due to the lack of censorship compared to movies.
“With so many films, my job ends up in the editing room; every actor has that,” he said in 2012. “What will they do to my pictures?”
Young is survived by his daughter, brother and grandchild. Times. His wife Gloria died in 1974.