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Tony Burton | |
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| Born | Anthony Burton March 23, 1937 |
| Died | February 25, 2016 (aged 78) California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, athlete, comedian |
| Years active | 1957–2007 |
| Spouse(s) | Aurelian Burton Rae Burton |
| Children | 1 |
Anthony "Tony" Burton (March 23, 1937 – February 25, 2016) was an American actor and comedian, best known for his role as Tony "Duke" Evers in the Rocky franchise.
Burton was born Anthony Burton in Flint, Michigan[1] on March 23, 1937. He had a younger sister named Loretta.[2] A Flint Northern High School graduate,[3] he was a Michigan Golden Gloves heavyweight boxing champion and two-time all-state football player. At Northern, he played halfback.[3] In 1954, he scored 13 touchdowns and led his team in scoring. Many of the scoring runs were of 50 yards or more. He gained 820 yards rushing that year and one of his runs was for 95 yards. That same year, he was selected to the first teams of the All City and All Valley teams as a halfback. He was also chosen as an All State honorable mention. He was the team's co-captain and Most Valuable Player. Burton led his team in yards gained and receiving yards. In one game against Grand Rapids Catholic, he gained 213 total yards. At Northern, Burton was also the leading baseball pitcher, pitching the team to the city championship title.
His boxing career included the Flint Golden Gloves light heavyweight championship in 1955 and 1957.[1][3] Burton won the State Golden Gloves Light Heavyweight Championship in 1957 and lost in the Chicago Tournament of Champions semi-finals. He fought as a professional boxer in 1958 and 1959. During that time he was knocked out by knockout artist Lamar Clark who holds the record for most consecutive knockouts at 44.[4]
After prison, Burton started getting work with small theater companies in and around Los Angeles, garnering favorable notices early on.[5][6]
A life member of the Actors Studio,[7] Burton numbers among his many credits a co-starring role in Frank's Place and parts in films, such as Hook, Stir Crazy, and The Toy. He was also known for his role as Wells, one of the prisoners trapped in the besieged police station, Precinct 9, Division 13, in John Carpenter's 1976, Howard Hawks-inspired action film Assault on Precinct 13. He also starred in the Rocky films as a trainer to Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) and Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). He appeared in an episode of Gibbsville in 1976.
In 1993, Burton was inducted into the Greater Flint Afro-American Hall of Fame. He was also known as a talented chess player. Stanley Kubrick was defeated by him on the set of The Shining, in which Burton played Larry the garage owner. Speaking with Kubrick biographer Vincent LoButto, Burton recalled his first day on the set:
My contract was for a week. I just had two short scenes in the movie. I stayed for six weeks because Stanley and I were playing chess... Stanley was a stronger player than I but I was strong enough to give him sufficient struggle to where he enjoyed it. I beat him in the first or second game we played, and then I didn't win any more after that, but it was always a tight struggle. That's what he loved; I guess there was no one else around that played strong.[8]
Burton was married to Aurelian[2] and Rae.[3] Burton had been living in California for nearly 30 years before his death.[3] Burton attended Immanuel Baptist Church in Highland, California. He had one son, Martin, who dies of a heart attack at the age of 43 on May 8, 2014.[3]
Burton had been in and out of the hospital the past year of his life according to his sister.[1] On February 25, 2016, he died at age 78 from pneumonia at a Southern California hospital.[9][2]
Life after boxing minus any marketable skills or a high school diploma proved a poor formula for success, and before long, Burton wound up in prison, doing three and a half years for robbery at the California Institution for Men in Chino, California.[3] In the end, it proved a valuable experience as Burton recounted to NEA's Frank Sanello in March 1988:
Prison for me was productive because I got my high school diploma and a degree from the University of California. But most important, I got myself together and found out who I was and how I could proceed without destroying myself.
More specifically, one of the skills acquired at Chino landed Burton his current wife, Rae, whom he met on a TV repair house call. Moreover, a workshop in the prison that used psychodrama as a form of therapy pointed Burton towards his acting career, when an emotional breakthrough achieved by one of his partners in an acting exercise demonstrated dramatically theater's potential power, on both sides of the footlights.[10]