Celebrity Biographies
Tony Burton
Just after the success of “Creed. The Legend of Rocky” on billboards, an actor linked to the boxing saga died on February 25, 2016. Tony Burton, who played Tony “Duke” Evers in the franchise, was 78 years old. The death of the actor at his California residence has been announced by Carl Weathers, his pupil on the screen. “His intensity and his talent contributed to the success of the movies,” he says.
Born on March 23, 1937, in Flint (Michigan), Anthony Burton was a prominent athlete in his youth. He was part of several soccer teams, then he was a baseball pitcher, and finally he became a professional boxer, winning a local title.
After a season in prison, for robbery, Burton managed to get his life back on track, appearing as a secondary in different television series, such as Baretta . From there he moved on to movies, shooting titles like Heist on the 13th Precinct , before playing Apollo Creed’s trainer in Rocky . He appeared in all five subsequent sequels, all but the last, where he was unable to participate due to being seriously ill.
Later he lavished himself in numerous films such as The Shining , where he plays Larry Durkin, a guy who has telepathic abilities, but who only appears in the longest American version, and not in the one that could be seen in the rest of the world. During filming he would bring a chess board to the set every day, to play with Stanley Kubrick .
He lived for 30 years in California, with Rae, his wife. His son, Martin, passed away in 2014 from a heart attack. Due to his health problems, Burton could not go to see the last installment, where he pays tribute, as his portrait appears in Rocky Balboa’s restaurant.