Today would have been the 85th birthday of the great character actor Burt Young.

Burt Young appeared in a lot of classic films.  He had a streetwise authenticity about him and he was one of those guys who looked a bit older than his years.  (He was only 36 when he appeared in Rocky.)  Young played cops and gangsters and New York characters of all stripes.  That said, to most people, he’ll always be Paulie, the brother-in-law of Rocky Balboa.  Young did such a good job playing Paulie that this character became beloved, despite being a racist misogynist who managed to screw up Rocky’s life in nearly every Rocky film in which he appeared.

(In real life, Burt Young was a painter and a poet, showing that one should never judge a book by its cover.  Unless it’s one of those really badass covers that my sisters likes to share.)  

Today’s scene that I love is a classic Paulie scene.  Rocky may be the world’s most popular boxer but Paulie’s getting a little tired of him.  A pinball machine is about to pay the price.  From Rocky III, here is a scene that I love.