Chicago Justice
Season 1 M-Net (*101) 20:00 Action
Carl Weathers was the perfect choice to play Mark Jeffries, the no-nonsense State Attorney in Chicago Justice (2017). He took a pounding and kept standing as boxing champ Apollo Creed in Sly Stallone’s Rocky movies (1976-current) and jokes that “this [Chicago Justice] is the perfect place to prove my acting. If I could survive Rocky, nothing can stop me!” Nothing barring a cancellation of the show after 13 episodes, that is.
Carl was an all-round sportsman 1
while at St Augustine High School in New Orleans. He was so good in fact, that he had a full scholarship thanks to his talents in the boxing ring, on the athletics track and the basketball court.
Acting wasn’t something he even 2
took seriously and had planned to play professional football or judo. “At that time, I was excelling on the field so it made sense,” says the 69-year-old. “But I’m glad I ended up here.”
While playing linerbacker for the 3
Oakland Raiders NFL team in 1970, Carl studied Drama at the San Francisco State University and quit pro football when he graduated in 1974.
Carl jokes that he’s lucky to have 4
been cast as Apollo “because I let him [Sly] have it after my audition with him. I told him what I thought of his acting ‘skills’ – and he loved it!”
He has three ex-wives – Mary Ann 5
Castle, the mother of his sons Jason and Matthew whom he divorced in 1973; Rhona Unsell, who he split from in 2006; and Jennifer Peterson, who he was married to from 2007 to 2009.
Among his other achievements 6
that Carl is most proud of is being inducted into the International Mustache Hall Of Fame in 2016 and working with the US Military.