Tony Burton, actor from ‘Rocky’ movies, dies at 78

Along with Sylvester Stallone and Burt Young – who played Rocky’s future brother-in-law “Paulie” – Burton’s character, Tony “Duke” Ever, was the only other character to appear in all six movies. “Rest in peace (sic)”, he wrote.

Upon hearing the news on Twitter, actor Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) tweeted: “Sad news”.

Burton died of pneumonia Thursday at a Southern California hospital, his wife, Aurelain “Rae” Burton, said Friday.

The actor appeared in all seven of the films in the franchise. ‘We didn’t talk about [Rocky] a lot.

Anthony M. Burton was born in Flint, Mich., on March 23, 1937.

When the Rocky series started, Burton was the trainer of Apollo Creed, although much of the trainer related attention went to Mickey.

Burton won two Flint Golden Gloves light heavyweight titles in 1955 and 1957, then briefly fought professionally before starting his acting career, MLive reported.

“Tony Burton who played the character of Duke brilliantly in all six Rocky movies”. While also returning for the sequels, Burton continued his television cameo cavalcade while nabbing distinguished roles in Assault on Precinct 13 and, notably, as garage owner, Larry Durkin in The Shining. Following his boxing career coming to an end, Burton would turn to crime, being incarcerated for three-and-a-half years for robbery, though he later said the experience benefited him. As Duke tells a dismissive Apollo, “Looks like he means business”, Burton’s performance effectively conveys the idea that Duke sees the determined, iron-jawed southpaw, Rocky as a legitimate threat. Unfortunately, he just missed his chance to watch the film on DVD or Blu-ray; Creed’s home release is this Tuesday, five days after Tony Burton’s untimely passing.