Burt Young

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Gerald Tommaso DeLouise (born April 30, 1940), better known by his stage name Burt Young, is an American actor, author and painter. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the Rocky film series. He also had praised roles in Chinatown (1974), The Gambler (1974), Convoy (1978), Uncle Joe Shannon (1978), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Back to School (1986), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990), Transamerica (2005), and Win Win (2011).

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Personal life

Young was born in Queens, New York, the son of Josephine and Michael, a high school shop teacher. He is of Italian descent. He was trained by Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Young is a widower and has one daughter, Anne Morea, and one grandson. He lives in Port Washington, New York. Young served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959. While in the Marine Corps, he won 32 of 34 boxing bouts. He later turned pro and compiled a 17-0 record under three different aliases. His manager was Cus D'Amato.

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Career

Young made his name playing rough-edged working class Italian-American characters, the best-known example being his signature role as Rocky Balboa's friend (and future brother-in-law) Paulie in Rocky (1976), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He is one of four actors (the other three being Sylvester Stallone, Stu Nahan and Tony Burton) who have appeared in all of the first six Rocky films (although Talia Shire, who appears in the first five films, makes a flashback appearance in the sixth). Young did not reprise his role in the 2015 film Creed, with the character described as having died in 2012.

He has played similar roles in Chinatown, Convoy, Back to School, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Once Upon a Time in America, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Downtown: A Street Tale, and even a brutal and darker role in Amityville II: The Possession. Young has also appeared in many television programs, including The Rockford Files, Baretta, Law & Order, Walker, Texas Ranger, M*A*S*H, guest-starred in a Miami Vice episode, and made an appearance on The Sopranos ("Another Toothpick") as Bobby Baccalieri's father, who is dying of cancer and comes out of retirement to execute a hit on his godson.

Young is also a painter; his art has been displayed in galleries throughout the world. As an artist, he has collaborated with the writer Gabriele Tinti, for whom he designed the cover for the poetry collection All Over, as well as contributing the illustrations for the art book A Man. Young is also a published author whose works include two filmed screenplays and a 400-page historical novel called Endings.

He has written two stage plays: SOS and A Letter to Alicia and the New York City Government from a Man With a Bullet in His Head.

In 2017, Burt Young returned to the stage as an aged mob boss in The Last Vig, a play written by Dave Varriale. The show ran from January 14 to February 19, 2017, at The Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles.