Burt Young

 ( 1940 Births ) 

Gerald Tommaso DeLouise (April 30, 1940 – October 8, 2023), known professionally as Burt Young, was an American actor. He played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the Rocky film series, his performance in the first installment of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Young also appeared in such films as Chinatown (1974), The Gambler (1974), The Killer Elite (1975), Convoy (1978), Uncle Joe Shannon (1978), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984), A Summer to Remember (1985), Back to School (1986), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990), Mickey Blue Eyes (1999), Transamerica (2005), Win Win (2011), and Bottom of the 9th (2019).

---

Early life Young was born on April 30, 1940, in Queens, New York City,

(2025). 9781610699952, ABC-CLIO. . ISBN 9781610699952

and raised in the Queens neighborhood of Corona, the son of Josephine and Michael DeLouise, a high school shop class teacher. He was of Italian descent.

Young was trained by Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio.

---

Career

---

Military service Young served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959; while in the Marine Corps, he boxed regularly, winning 32 of 34 boxing bouts.

---

Acting 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; the character was described as having died in 2012.

Young appeared in such films as Chinatown, Convoy, Back to School, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Once Upon a Time in America, Last Exit to Brooklyn, , and .

Television appearances for Young included The Rockford Files, Baretta, Law & Order, Walker, Texas Ranger, All in the Family, M*A*S*H, and Miami Vice. He 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, Salvatore "Mustang Sally" Intile, as punishment for Intile having brutally beaten a family friend simply for chatting with Intile's girlfriend.

In a nod to his having served in the U.S. Marine Corps, he played a retired drill instructor in the short-lived 1987 ABC series Roomies, in which his character decides to go to college after his retirement.

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.

---

Painting and writing Young was also a painter; his art has been displayed in galleries throughout the world. As an artist, he 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. Some of Young's actual paintings were shown in a scene in Rocky Balboa when Paulie gets fired from the meatpacking plant.

Young was also a published author whose works included two filmed screenplays and a 400-page historical novel called Endings. He wrote two stage plays: SOS and A Letter to Alicia and the New York City Government from a Man With a Bullet in His Head.

---

Personal life Young's wife, Gloria, died in 1974. He had a daughter and a grandson. He resided in Port Washington, New York.

Young owned a restaurant in the Bronx, New York. He participated in the 1984 New York City Marathon.

---

Death Young died at Northridge Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, on October 8, 2023, at the age of 83. The immediate cause of death was ruled as cardiac arrest with contributing factors listed as myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, and atherosclerosis. He was buried at Mount St. Mary Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.

---

Filmography

---

Film

1970	Carnival of Blood	Gimpy	Credited as John Harris
1971	Born to Win	First Hood
	The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight	Willie Quarequlo
1972	Across 110th Street	Lapides
1973	Cinderella Liberty	Master At Arms
1974	Chinatown	Curly
	The Gambler	Carmine
1975	The Killer Elite	Mac
	Live A Little, Steal A Lot	Sergeant Bernasconi
1976	Harry and Walter Go to New York	Warden Durgom
	Rocky	Paulie Pennino	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1977	The Choirboys	Scuzzi
1977	Twilight's Last Gleaming	Augie Garvas
1978	Convoy	Bobby 'Love Machine' Pig Pen
	Uncle Joe Shannon	Joe Shannon	Also the writer of this film
1979	Rocky II	Paulie Pennino
1981	Blood Beach	Sergeant Royko
	...All the Marbles	Eddie Cisco
1982	Rocky III	Paulie Pennino
		Anthony Montelli
	Lookin' to Get Out	Jerry Feldman
1984	Over the Brooklyn Bridge	Phil
	Once Upon a Time in America	Joe Minaldi
	The Pope of Greenwich Village	Eddie 'Bed Bug Eddie' Grant
1985	Rocky IV	Paulie Pennino
	A Summer to Remember	Fidel Fargo
1986	Back to School	Lou
1989	Going Overboard	General Noriega
	Blood Red	Andrews
	Beverly Hills Brats	Clive
1990	Last Exit to Brooklyn	Joe 'Big Joe'
	Betsy's Wedding	Georgie
	Wait Until Spring, Bandini	Rocco Saccone
	Club Fed	Warden Boyle
	Diving In	Coach Mack
	Backstreet Dreams	Luca
	Rocky V	Paulie Pennino
1991	Bright Angel	Art
	Red American	George Maniago
1992	Circle of Fear	Mancini
	Cattive ragazze	Unknown
1993	Excessive Force	Sal DiMarco
1995	Opposite Corners	Unknown	Direct-to-video
1996	The Mouse	Himself
	North Star	Reno	Direct-to-video
1997	She's So Lovely	Lorenzo
	Kicked in the Head	Jack
	The Deli	J.C.
	Heaven Before I Die	Pollof	Direct-to-video
	The Good Life	Jimmy	Never released
	Red-Blooded American Girl II	Roy Falk	Direct-to-video
	The Undertaker's Wedding	Alberto	Direct-to-video
1999	Mickey Blue Eyes	Vito Graziosi
	Loser Love	Sydney Delacroix
2000	The Florentine	Joe McCollough
	Very Mean Men	Dominic Piazza
	Blue Moon	Bobby
	Table One	Frankie Chips	Direct-to-video
2002	The Adventures of Pluto Nash	Gino
	Checkout	Uncle Louie
	2 Birds 1 Stallone	Himself
	Kiss the Bride	Santo Sposato
2003	Crooked Line	Mike Ameche
2004	The Wager	Jack Stockman
	Los Angeles Plays Itself	Curly In Chinatown	Uncredited, archive footage
2005	Land of Plenty	Sherman
		Artie Bottolota Sr.	Direct-to-video
	Shut Up and Kiss Me	Vincent Bublioni
		Actor	Uncredited, archive footage
	Transamerica	Murray
2006		Himself
	Nicky's Game	Leo Singer	Short film
	Rocky Balboa	Paulie Pennino
	In The Ring	Himself	Video documentary
	Tribute to Burgess Meredith	Himself (voice)	Video documentary short
2007	Blue Lake Massacre	Pops
		Gus
	The 21st Annual Genesis Awards	Himself	Video
	Skill vs. Will: The Making of 'Rocky Balboa'	Himself	Video documentary short
	Go Go Tales	Murray
	Oliviero Rising	Santino
	The Hideout	Mueller
	Hack!	J.T. Bates	Direct-to-video
2008		Lou Serosi
	Rocky Jumped a Park Bench	Himself	Documentary short, archive footage
2009	New York, I Love You	Landlord
2010	Kingshighway	Mario Capriolini
2011	Win Win	Leo Poplar
2012	Casting By	Himself	Documentary
2013	See You Tomorrow	Mario Palagonia
	All Over	Himself - Host	Video short
2014	Tom in America	Michael	Short film
	Zarra's Law	Paul Canto
	Rob the Mob	Joey D.
2015	The Elevator: Three Minutes Can Change Your Life	George
	Lostland	Actor	Short film
	Irene & Marie	John	Short film
	Fall 4 You	Dominick	Short film
2016	The Dicks	Ed	Short film
2017	The Neighborhood	'Jingles'
	King Rat	Art Stillman
	John G. Avildsen: King of the Underdogs	Himself	Documentary
2018	The Selfish Ones	Father John (voice)	Short film
	6 Grandchildren And One Grandfather	Grandfather
	Sarah Q	Grandpa
	The Amityville Murders	Brigante
	Road to the Lemon Grove	Zio Vincenzo
2019	The Brawler	Salvatore
	Bottom of the 9th	Scaleri
	Vault	Don Ruggiero
	Tapestry	Ian
	Smothered by Mothers	Ivan
2020		Himself - Paulie Pennino	Documentary short, archive audio
	Beckman	Salvatore
2021	Stallone: Frank, That Is	Himself	Documentary
	Charlie Boy	Luca
	The Final Code	Detective
TBA	Way of the Warriors	George Stevens	In production
	Asleep at the Wheel	Judge	In production

---

Television

1969	The Doctors	Bartender	Episode #1785 10 October 1969
1973	The Connection	Ernie	Television film
1973	M*A*S*H	Lieutenant Willis	Episode: "L.I.P. (Local Indigenous Personnel)"
1974	The Great Niagara	Ace Tully	Television film
1975	Hustling	Gustavino	Television film
1976	The Rockford Files	Stuart Gaily	Episode: "The Family Hour"
1975–1976	Baretta	Willy Solomon Johnny Checco	Episodes: "Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow" "The Big Hand's on Trouble" (Also the writer of this episode) "Soldier in the Jungle"
1976	Serpico	Alec Rosen	Episode: "The Deadly Game"
1976	Woman of the Year	Ralph Rodino	Television film
1977	Good Morning America	Himself – Guest	Episode: "17 March 1977"
1977	Academy Awards	Himself – Nominee	Television special
1978	Daddy, I Don't Like It Like This	Rocco Agnelli	Television film, Also the writer of this film
1979–1980	The Mike Douglas Show	Himself – Guest	2 episodes
1980	The 6th People's Choice Awards	Himself – Accepting Favourite Motion Picture Award	Television special
1980	Murder Can Hurt You	Lt. Palumbo	Television film
1983	You and Me Kid	Actor	Television series
1984	Miami Vice	Lupo Ramirez	Episode: "Give a Little, Take a Little"
1985	Airwolf		Episode: "Prisoner of Yesterday"
1985	A Summer to Remember	Fidel Fargo	Television film
1985	Playboy Mid Summer Night's Dream Party 1985	Himself	Television film
1985	The Equalizer	Louie Ganucci	Episode: "The Confirmation Day"
1986	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Ed Fratus	Episode 1x23, "Road Hog"
1986	Nightlife	Himself	1 episode
1987	Roomies	Nick Chase	8 episodes
1990		Vincent Dominici	Television miniseries
1992	The Final Contract		Television film
1992	Tales from the Crypt	Gambler	Episode: "Split Personality"
1993	Double Deception	Zimmer	Television film
1994	Columbo	Mo Weinberg	Episode: "Undercover"
1994	Crocodile Shoes	Lou Benedetti	Television miniseries
1995	Bless This House	Mr. Riveto	Episode: "The Postman Always Moves Twice"
1996–1997	Walker, Texas Ranger	Jack "Soldier" Belmont	2 episodes
1997	The Last Don	Virginio Ballazzo	Television miniseries
1997	Law & Order	Lewis Darnell	Episode: "Mad Dog"
1997	Before Women Had Wings	Louis Ippolito	Television film
1997	The Outer Limits	Captain Parker	Episode: "Tempests"
1998	Greener Fields	Gallagher	Television film
1999	The Making of a Mobster: 'Mickey Blue Eyes'	Himself	Television short documentary
2000	The Howard Stern Show	Himself – Guest	Episode: "6 May 2000"
2001	The Sopranos	Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri Sr.	Episode: "Another Toothpick"
2002	Alternate Realities	Frank	Television series
2003	The Handler	Dino Mantoni	Episode: "Bruno Comes Back"
2004	I'm With Her	Himself	Episode: "Winners & Losers & Whiners & Boozers: Part 2"
2005–2011	Biography	Himself	2 episodes
2005	The Contenders	Himself	4 episodes
2007	La noche desesperada	Murray	Television film, archive footage
2008	Cinemania	Himself	Episode: "Rocky IV"
2009		Eddy Mack	Episode: "Snatched"
2011	The Rocky Saga: Going the Distance	Himself	Television film documentary
2013	Baciamo le mani – Palermo New York 1958	Gillo Draghi	Television miniseries (Italian)
2014	Turning Point with Frank McKay	Himself	Episode: "Frank McKay with Burt Young"
2015	The Jack and Triumph Show	Himself	Episode: "Sorvino's Pants"
2016	Brows Held High	Paulie Pennino	Episode: "Rocky and the Methods of Montage"
2016	Horace and Pete	Horace Sr.	Web miniseries, Episode #1.10
2018	Kevin Can Wait	Marv	Season 2
2019	Russian Doll	Joe	Recurring role, 2 episodes

---

External links

Post Comment