Burt Young, a one-time prizefighter from Queens who played multifaceted tough guys in dozens of movies and television shows, becoming a fixture of the Rocky franchise with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Paulie Pennino, Rocky Balboa’s best friend turned cornerman. He was 83. Young died on October 8, 2023 in Los Angeles.
Born Gerald Tommaso DeLouise in New York City’s Queens borough, the burly performer served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 1950s and later studied at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio. He went on to build a career playing mostly tough-guy and Italian-American characters on television and film.
He was best remembered for his role in the original 1976 Rocky film, playing Paulie Pennino, the alcoholic butcher, and pal to Stallone’s lead character, Rocky Balboa, who made punching slaps of meat in the storage locker where Paulie worked part of his regular training routine as an aspiring boxer.
Young appeared in such films as Chinatown (1974), The Gambler (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Convoy (1978), Uncle Joe Shannon (1978), Once Upon a Time in America… Read More About Burt Young
