Biography for
Burt Young More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

30 April 1940, New York City, New York, USA

Birth Name

Richard Morea

Height

5' 8" (1.73 m)

Mini Biography

Burly, talented character actor who has remained consistently busy playing "rough at the edge" type characters, often on the wrong side of the law. Young was born on April 30 1940 in New York City, where he received his dramatic arts training under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.

Young first gathered notice playing tough thugs in such films as The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971), Across 110th Street (1972), Chinatown (1974) and The Gambler (1974). Fiery director Sam Peckinpah cast Young as the getaway driver / assassin, "Mac", in The Killer Elite (1975), and Young came to the attention of newcomer Sylvester Stallone, who cast him as future brother-in-law 'Paulie' in the 1976 sleeper hit Rocky (1976). The talented Young was nominated for an Oscar, and has gone on to reprise the role in all five "Rocky" sequels to date! Peckinpah re-hired him to play renegade trucker "Pigpen" in the moderately successful Convoy (1978) (watch for "Pigpen's" Mack truck where the writing on the door states "Paulie Hauling"!).

Young has also appeared in numerous other major productions, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999) and The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002).

IMDb Mini Biography By: firehouse44@hotmail.com

Trivia

In 1980 he guest-starred in a TV movie called Murder Can Hurt You! (1980) (TV), a spoof on popular detective shows, in which he played "Lt. Palumbo"; ironically, 14 years later he appeared in a serious role in "Columbo: Undercover (#12.3)" (1994).

Is Italian/American

Sylvester Stallone gave Young an inscribed gold Cartier watch in the 1990s, which he still wears.

Served in U.S. Marines from 1957 to 1959.

Jobs worked during his salad days were as a carpet cleaner, salesman and installer.

Used to be a boxer.

Along with Sylvester Stallone and Tony Burton, he is the only other actor to have appeared in all six 'Rocky' movies.

Personal Quotes

It was people standing up, not even winning, just standing up, and it became a delicate love story with two pretty weak people making one whole person, meaning Sylvester and Talia (Shire)." BY, reassessing the success of "Rocky

"I enjoyed playing around with that guy, and it was a pleasure every three, four years, coming back seeing how the wardrobe is. Is he heavy? Is he thin? I had fun." - BY, on playing Paulie in the Rocky films.

Where Are They Now

(2003) Is currently at work on a novel entitled Endings, is writing another film, Rear View Mirror, and has two other scripts in pre-production: Haggerty and Rembrandt.