Burt Young

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, the son of a high school shop teacher. He is of Italian descent. Young received his dramatic arts training under legendary acting coach 'Lee Strasberg' (qv) at the Actors Studio.Young first gathered notice playing tough thugs in such films as _The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971)_ (qv), _Across 110th Street (1972)_ (qv), _Chinatown (1974)_ (qv) and _The Gambler (1974)_ (qv). Fiery director 'Sam Peckinpah' (qv) cast Young as the getaway driver / assassin, "Mac", in _The Killer Elite (1975)_ (qv), and Young came to the attention of newcomer 'Sylvester Stallone' (qv), who cast him as future brother-in-law 'Paulie' in the 1976 sleeper hit _Rocky (1976)_ (qv). 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)_ (qv) (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)_ (qv), _The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)_ (qv), _Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)_ (qv), _Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)_ (qv) and _The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)_ (qv).::firehouse44@hotmail.com