Burt Young, the Oscar nominated actor known for his timeless role as Paulie in the Rocky film franchise, has died at 83, his manager confirmed in a statement.
Young received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 1977 for his role as the friend and future brother-in-law of boxer Rocky, played by Sylvester Stallone.
“Burt was an actor of tremendous emotional range. 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,” his manager, Lynda Bensky, said of the veteran actor in a statement.
Young died earlier this month in Los Angeles, according to the New York Times, after a lengthy Hollywood career that spanned six decades.
He played Curly in 1974’s Chinatown alongside Jack Nicholson before his turn as Carmine in The Gambler, a film that followed a professor who gets into trouble with his gambling debt.
Young took on a variety of roles in the 1970s, including in the 1975 TV movie Hustling, 1976’s Serpico with Al Pacino and The Rockford Files.
He was best known for his career-defining role as Paulie, the cantankerous yet lovable brother-in-law of Sylvester Stallone’s character in Rocky, appearing in all six films up until Rocky Balboa in 2006.
Young was nominated at the 1977 Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for the first film.
“To my Dear Friend, BURT YOUNG, you were an incredible man’s and artist, I and the World will miss you very much…RIP,” Stallone wrote on Instagram Wednesday evening, reacting to the news.
Young is also remembered for his role in the 1978 cult-classic Convoy, and had a latter and brief turn in the huge hit The Sopranos.
The actor, worked steadily for years and also recently appeared as Joe across two episodes of Netflix hit Russian Doll.
