By Blake Stilwell
Actor Burt Young, who died Oct. 8 at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 83, may not have had the most famous face in Hollywood history, but for many movie lovers it was certainly one of the most recognizable.
Young racked up an astonishing 160 acting roles over the course of his 50-year career, including in beloved films such as “Chinatown,” “The Killer Elite” and “Once Upon a Time in America.”
Arguably his most well-known character was Paulie in the 1976 film “Rocky,” which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. That’s a respectable resume for someone who once said he joined the Marine Corps at 16 as “half a hoodlum.”
Young may have ended up in Hollywood, but he came by his New York tough guy persona honestly. Born Gerald Tommaso DeLouise in 1940, he was raised in the Corona neighborhood of Queens by whom he called “the greatest parents in the world” in a 2016 interview.
“I was acting before [my father] died. He never understood it. He knew me as a hoodlum,” Young said.
In an attempt to keep their son from growing up as street tough, Young’s parents sent him to a more affluent school in Queens and then to a private academy in Manhattan. He was booted out of both by age 16 and ended up in a Marine Corps recruiter’s office, where both father and son lied about his age to enlist.
Young served in the Corps between 1957 and 1959. He learned boxing and maintained a record of 32-2 in the service. After leaving the Marines, he tried his hand(s) at professional boxing, training with legend Charley Goldman, who had famously trained undefeated heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano. Young’s manager was the equally famous Cus D’Amato, who managed boxers Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson. In the pros, Young said he fought 17 professional bouts and never lost.
“Fighting was in my nature,” Young recalled. “I did an exhibition with Muhammad Ali. It was one of my high spots… but you’re never sad, giving up boxing. Who gets sad about not being punched in the face?”
After his boxing career ended in the 1960s, he found work in the carpet-laying business but was unhappy with his life. He inadvertently fell into his acting career while pursuing a local barmaid.
“I started asking her if she ever thought about being an actress,” he recalled. “She lit up and said she wanted to study under Lee Strasberg. I thought that was a girl. I didn’t know who the hell Lee Strasberg was.”
Known as “the father of method acting,” Strasberg was one of America’s greatest acting talents. Later an acting teacher, he became director of the Actors Studio in New York and founded the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles.
Young, initially trying to get his girl into the studio, wrote to Strasberg, saying, “I don’t know if acting has anything for me, but I’m treading water. See me.”
And he did. Strasberg met with Young and told the carpet layer, “I feel you are an emotional library. Will you work with me?” Young felt he could take himself seriously as an actor with Strasberg’s commitment and worked with him for two years.
Young’s first onscreen credit came in 1971’s “Born to Win,” alongside George Segal and Robert De Niro. His performance in 1975’s “The Killer Elite” caught the attention of Sylvester Stallone, who wanted Young to play Paulie in his film “Rocky.”
“It was a masterpiece of simplicity … moving poetry,” Young said of “Rocky.” “I was in the commissary in Los Angeles and this young guy comes in and squats down next to me. He said ‘Mr. Young, I’m Sylvester Stallone. I wrote ‘Rocky.’’ And he says, ‘You gotta do it,’ trying to strong-arm me. It was a strong piece of writing. I didn’t take a chance; I dove right in.”
Young would appear in the first six “Rocky” movies. He was the highest-paid actor in the first film and earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance. Some of the training methods he actually used as a boxer were featured in the original film (but the famous meat locker scene was not one of them).
“They miscast me,” he joked. “I’m a lovable son-of-a-gun, I just go astray here and there.”
Young’s roles ranged from his usual dramas to action, horror and even comedy in the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield movie “Back to School.” He also had a number of television appearances, which include TV legends like “M*A*S*H,” “The Rockford Files” and “Miami Vice.” He even starred in the short-lived series “Roomies,” playing a retired Marine Corps drill instructor who goes to college after retirement.
“[Acting] is like driving or roller skating,” he said. “You just start. You smell the environment, you feel it. … You’ve got wonderful lines to give you bones. It’s up to you to be honest and hit the marks.”
