‘Rocky’ star Burt Young dies at 83

Burt Young, who is known for playing Rocky Balboa’s brother-in-law Paulie in the first six Rocky movies opposite Sylvester Stallone, died at the age of 83.

The late Oscar-nominated actor’s manager, Lynda Bensky, confirmed the news to People Magazine in statement.

“Burt was an actor of tremendous emotional range. He could make you cry and he could scare you to death,” she said. “But the real pathos that I experienced was the poignancy of his soul. That’s where it came from.”

Young died on October 8 in Los Angeles, his daughter, Anne Morea Steingieser, told the New York Times, which first reported his death Wednesday.

Over the course of his career, Young starred in over 160 movies and television shows. He became a reliable character actor who could play tough guys in mobs or working men just trying to make it.

For his role in Rocky, he was the only actor cast, who didn’t have to audition. Stallone saw him on the MGM lot, and told the former U.S. Marine that he had to be in the movie, Young recalled in The Sweet Science interview in 2009.