One of the more interesting characters in Rocky's life is Paulie, his jealous buddy and the brother of his love interest, Adrian. Paulie was played by veteran actor Burt Young, who died in 2023 at the age of 83. "Burt was an actor of tremendous emotional range," his manager, Lynda Bensky, said in a statement (via ABC News). "He could make you cry and he could scare you to death. But the real pathos that I experienced was the poignancy of his soul. That's where it came from."
Young was known for playing working-class characters and was often praised for bringing extra layers to roles that appeared flat on paper. He won plaudits for his turns in the poorly received Robert Aldrich films "All the Marbles" and "The Choirboys," with critic Richard Winters (via Variety) saying of the latter: "Here he plays an incredibly grungy, crass police sergeant who exposes a tender side at a completely unexpected moment."
Young reprised his "Rocky" role throughout the franchise, with his final appearance as Paulie coming in 2006's "Rocky Balboa." In the first "Creed" film, it's mentioned that Paulie passed away in 2012. Some of Young's most notable roles outside the "Rocky" franchise came in movies like "The Pope of Greenwich Village," "Once Upon a Time in America," "Mickey Blue Eyes," and "Win Win." He was still acting at the time of his death and had a number of projects in various stages of production.
