Burt Young,
Who Played Paulie in ‘Rocky’ Films,
Dies at 83







Burt Young, who played Paulie in six of the “Rocky” films starring Sylvester Stallone, drawing an Oscar nomination
for supporting actor for his performance in the 1976 original, has died, his daughter Anne Morea Steingieser
confirmed to the New York Times. He was 83.

Roger Ebert gave Young his props for his performance in the first “Rocky” film: “And Burt Young as (Adrian’s)
brother — defeated and resentful, loyal and bitter, caring about people enough to hurt them just to draw attention
to his grief.” The New York Times — in an absolutely scathing, completely dismissive review of the film — nevertheless
said: “Burt Young is effective as Rocky’s best friend, a beer-guzzling mug.”

Young’s temperamental, jealous but nonetheless loyal and caring Paulie Pennino was Rocky’s best friend — he
would defend the Italian Stallion if someone insulted him. But he was a problematic friend who shouts at Adrian
during her pregnancy, resulting in the premature birth of Rocky’s son; draws Balboa into a street fight; and in
1990’s “Rocky V,” is the cause of the Balboas’ bankruptcy.

In 2006’s “Rocky Balboa,” Paulie is back where he started, working at the meat-packing plant, but he’s laid off
and loses his skepticism about Rocky’s return to the ring and serves as his cornerman. Young did not appear in
2015’s “Creed,” as Paulie is said to have died in 2012.

The exceptionally prolific Young — who was never much to look at, making him the perfect character actor — had
a way of taking a thug or a goon or a mug and giving him more personality, more sympathy, somehow, than the
role deserved.

In a negative 2011 review of Robert Aldrich’s 1977 police dramedy “The Choirboys,” a poor adaptation of the
Joseph Wambaugh novel, critic Richard Winters wrote: “There are a few bright spots. I really liked the Burt Young
character. Many people remember him best from the ‘Rocky’ movies. Here he plays an incredibly grungy,
crass police sergeant who exposes a tender side at a completely unexpected moment.”

Young played one of the truckers in Sam Peckinpah’s execrable “Convoy” (1978), starring Kris Kristofferson,
and played the chauffeur and bodyguard of the Rodney Dangerfield character in the 1986 comedy “Back to School.”

Another example of the actor managing to score despite a generally mediocre film was Robert Aldrich’s 1981 girls
wrestling film “All the Marbles,” starring Peter Falk. Critic Dennis Schwartz wrote in 2011: “Burt Young as the oily
wrestling promoter who resents Falk for his independence, has a nice turn in a supporting role.”

In a memorable scene in Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984) that also featured a young Joe Pesci,
Young played a hood who eats crudely and tells a very off-color story about how he got clued into a Detroit diamond
shipment ripe for heisting. The actor played Bed Bug Eddie, a vindictive mobster whose $150,0000 the two protagonists
in 1984’s “The Pope of Greenwich Village,” played by Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke, unwisely steal from a safe.

In another characterful turn, in Uli Edel’s 1990 film “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” he played Big Joe, one of many who’s
thrown out of work by the strike at the heart of the movie. He is violent, none too bright and yet somehow a decent
man concerned about his family — a classic Burt Young character. Big Joe’s wife tells one day that his daughter,
played by Ricki Lake, is eight months pregnant, to which he replies, “She’s just fat.”

In the 1999 romantic comedy “Mickey Blue Eyes,” in which Hugh Grant falls in love with a gal (Jeanne Tripplehorn)
from a mobbed-up family, James Caan played her father and Young played the big boss. By this point Young had
made as many movies with Caan as he had with Stallone.

In 2006’s “Transamerica,” in which Felicity Huffman delightfully played a very proper pre-op transsexual who’s traveling
across the country, Fionnula Flanagan and Young played her crass parents, whom she visits in Phoenix.

In Tom McCarthy’s 2011 film “Win Win,” Paul Giamatti played a fed-up lawyer who double crosses his client (Young),
who’s moving into Alzheimer’s but refusing to leave his home, by becoming his legal guardian and moving him into
a nursing home.

The actor had a supporting role in Raymond De Felitta’s 2014 crime drama “Rob the Mob,” starring Michael Pitt
and Ray Romano.

Young tried series-regular television with the NBC comedy “Roomies” (1987), about a 50-year-old former Marine
sergeant who rooms with a young genius, played by Corey Haim, when they both go to college, but the show
lasted only eight episodes.

Young appeared in TV movies and guested on “Tales From the Crypt,” “Columbo,” “The Outer Limits,” “Russian Doll”
and even “Walker, Texas Ranger.” More fittingly, he appeared in a 2001 episode of “The Sopranos” as the father of
Steve Schirripa’s Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri. Tony mentions to Bobby “Bacala” that it was odd that he’d never
whacked anyone considering his father, who fronted as a barber, was “the fuckin Terminator in that respect.”

Young’s Bobby Sr., who’s suffering from lung cancer, comes out of retirement after Tony gives him the job of
killing Salvatore “Mustang Sally” Intile, but he died after choking on blood, losing control of his car and crashing
into a sign post while leaving the scene of his final hit.

More impressive, however, was the actor’s masterful performance in a 1997 episode of “Law & Order” called
“Mad Dog.” He played a paroled sex offender who’s presumed to be guilty of newly committed crimes fairly
similar to those that got him incarcerated, but he’s put under so much pressure by the police and especially
Sam Waterston’s executive D.A. McCoy that, ultimately, he is perhaps forced into reoffending, with disastrous
results. (Young also later appeared on an episode of “Law & Order: SVU.”)

Young was born in Queens, New York, to parents of Italian heritage; in a 1978 article, People magazine said
Young was mysterious about many details of his past, including his family’s original last name. He dropped
out of school when he was 15 to join the Marines, serving from 1957-59. He was trained by Lee Strasberg
at the Actors Studio.

The actor made his uncredited screen debut as a bartender in an episode of “The Doctors” in 1969. The next
year he made his big-screen debut (credited as John Harris) in the horror film “Carnival of Blood.” He had a
small part as a hood in Ivan Passer’s “Born to Win” (1971), which starred George Segal and Paula Prentiss
and featured a young Robert De Niro, and appeared in the crime comedy “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,”
starring Jerry Orbach, with De Niro again in a supporting role, and the well-regarded crime drama
“Across 110th Street” (1972).

Young had a supporting role in Mark Rydell’s “Cinderella Liberty” (1973), starring James Caan and Marsha Mason,
as a Navy master-at-arms, but he first really made an impression in Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown,” as Curly, the
fisherman who hired Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes on an earlier case and is willing to help out when Gittes wants
Curly to smuggle Faye Dunaway’s Evelyn and her daughter/sister Katherine out of the city and away from
John Huston’s Hollis Mulwray — a plan that fails.

In Karel Reisz’s James Toback-scripted “The Gambler” (1974), starring Caan, Young played another hood, but
this time he attracted the notice of critic Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Monthly Film Bulletin, who, in a negative
review of the film, declared: “It is worth noting that some of the actors do what they can to enliven the relatively
marginal parts of the narrative: Burt Young as Carmine, the loan shark hood, describes a parabola from homely
amiability to casual brutality that is truly terrifying.”

In Sam Peckinpah’s contemporary action thriller “The Killer Elite” (1975), Young was again reteamed with Caan,
playing the loyal driver Mac for Caan’s agent Mike Locken in a movie full of betrayals.
(It was in this role that Young caught the attention of Stallone.)

In Mark Rydell’s period heist film “Harry and Walter Go to New York” (1976), starring Caan and Elliott Gould
and clearly inspired by “The Sting,” Young got a chance to be on the other side of the law for a change,
playing the warden of the prison in which the grand scheme is hatched.

But that same year he made another film that would be far more important in determining the arc of his acting
career: the John G. Avildsen-directed “Rocky,” scripted by Stallone and with Young third billed as Paulie.

Young penned the screenplays to the 1978 CBS TV movie “Daddy, I Don’t Like It Like This” and the 1978 film
“Uncle Joe Shannon,” in which he starred as the title character.

Stallone paid tribute to his “Rocky” co-star on Instagram, writing, “To my dear friend, Burt Young, you were an
incredible man’s and artist, I and the World will miss you very much.”

Young’s wife Gloria died in 1974. He is survived by a daughter, Anne Morea.

Jen Psaki Bashes GOP Speaker Mike Johnson
for Being a ‘Religious Fundamentalist’

October 30, 2023








Former White House press secretary turned MSNBC host Jen Psaki bashed the new
Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, for being a “religious fundamentalist”
on her show, “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Sunday.

“First glance, Mike Johnson does seem fine,” Psaki said. “Fine-ish. Conservative, yes.
But he once started a civility caucus with a Democrat. And I mean, if nothing else,
he wears a suit and has glasses,” she continued. “How threatening can this guy actually be?”

Psaki played a clip of Johnson describing himself as a “Bible-believing Christian.”

“I am a Bible-believing Christian,” Johnson said. “Someone asked me today in the media,
they said, well, it’s curious. People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any
issue under the sun?” he said in the clip. “I said, Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf
and read it. That’s my world view.”

“You heard that right,” Psaki said in response to Johnson’s comments.
“The Bible doesn’t just inform his worldview, it is his worldview.”

In an article for MSNBC, Psaki warned her audience that Johnson is a scary speaker for more
than just his political beliefs. “Most Americans might not be able to pick Mike Johnson out of
a lineup, but in reality he’s far from benign,” Psaki wrote.

“It’s not just his political ideology that should scare us. Johnson is basically
a Christian fundamentalist,” she continued.

Johnson has received a polarized reaction online for invoking God and the Bible during
appearances following his election to Speaker of the House.

While conservatives on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, have praised Johnson for
wearing his Christianity on his sleeve in his new role, some liberals argued that he is offending
the “Constitution and the New Testament” with his appeal to God inside the House chamber.