Unfortunately, Adrian from Rocky is written to have lost a battle with cancer off-screen in the time between 1990's Rocky V and
Rocky Balboa
In autumn of 2001, Adrian discovered that she was dying from ovarian cancer. She underwent chemotherapy, but it was not enough to save her life. Adrian died peacefully in her sleep on January 11, 2002, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with her family along her side, aged 56.
Adrian has died from cancer four years prior, Rocky Jr. is all grown up and Rocky is getting back in the ring. As for Paulie, he's back at work at his meatpacking job and is still Rocky's cornerman when he fights. You would expect for Paulie to show up in Creed, but alas, he doesn't.
Paulie is shown as having died on February 22, 2012. He was buried next to Adrian. Rocky visits his grave on his birthday and leaves a bottle of his favorite liquor on his headstone after which he sits and reads the newspaper. When Donnie Creed moves in with Rocky, he stays in Paulie's old bedroom.
Rocky and Mickey begin training but Rocky is unfocused due to Adrian's disapproval. Adrian's brother, Paulie, confronts his sister about not supporting her husband. Adrian faints during the confrontation and is rushed to the hospital where she goes into labor.
Unfortunately, Adrian from Rocky is written to have lost a battle with cancer off-screen in the time between 1990's Rocky V and Rocky Balboa.
Despite being the face of the Rocky franchise, Stallone chose not to appear in Creed III due to creative differences with producer Irwin Winkler as well as with Jordan, although he is still a producer on the film.
The character's fondness for alcohol, combined with his advancing age, would likely have contributed largely to his death. Paulie's death hasn't been outwardly addressed by Stallone or Ryan Coogler, who wrote and directed Creed, but it seems that Paulie didn't fit with the spin-off's revised tone.
Stallone had problems writing the 6th rocky movie with her in it. He felt it missed something. Killing her off helped to give Rocky a sense of desperation and widened the gap between him and his son. With Adrian, the gap would still be there but she would mediate a resolution between them.
When Rocky started training for the match against Apollo Creed, Adrian gave Butkus to accompany him while he was training. When the fight came along, Adrian watches, and when the fight finishes, Rocky calls out to her, and the two declare their love.
Rest in peace. She was ringside at every fight after the Philadelphia lovebirds met 30 years ago in 1976's Rocky. But yo, Adrian, she is no more. In Rocky Balboa, the sixth and final chapter of the boxing saga (in theaters), the aging boxer reveals that “woman cancer” claimed her in 2002.
The death was announced in a statement from his brother Robert Sirico, a Catholic priest in Michigan. He reportedly had dementia.
Another popular anecdote floating around for years is that Sirico agreed to do the series as long as Paulie never became a “rat,” aka government informant, as the actor had a criminal past and took the issue seriously. It seems that is most likely accurate, as Schirripa noted that Sirico said, “I'll never play a rat.”
Personal life. Balboa resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and married Adriana "Adrian" Pennino in 1976. They were married for 26 years. The two have a son, Robert Balboa Jr., who unlike his father goes by Robert.
Marie was a younger sister of an acquaintance that Rocky Balboa knew in the first movie Rocky and also in Rocky V. The part of Marie was played by Jodi Letizia. In the 2006 film Rocky Balboa, Marie is revived as a divorced single mother to a teen son.
Adrian Balboa is the fictional film wife of Rocky Balboa from the Rocky movies. Her granite tombstone is located at the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA. The original tombstone was made of Styrofoam but Sylvester Stallone thought it was tacky and had one made of real granite.
While promoting Rocky Balboa in a 2006 interview with Moviehole, Stallone explained that Adrian would've been much more one-dimensional in the movie's original storyline (mostly advising Rocky in ways such as "don't do that, don't do that, don't do that") - which he didn't want.
Rocky doesn't agree to train Adonis for the initial fight, causing the relationship to be broken for several months, until they mend the fences to work together for the second fight (after the first did not have a proper ending).
Paulie doesn't appear in this film due to his death but his gravestone is still seen when Rocky visits Adrian's gravestone again at the beggining of the film.
Tommy Morrison's character “Tommy Gunn,” who Stallone trains in the fifth installment of the franchise, sensationally kills off Rocky at the end. Behind-the-scenes script information revealed the news in a shocking twist to the early draft of the movie plot.
When Did Apollo Creed Die? As Rocky IV fans painfully remember, Apollo Creed was killed in the ring by the brutal Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV.
Fame and complacency soon cause Balboa to lose his title to young thug Clubber Lang ( Mr. T ), who inadvertently causes the death of Rocky's beloved trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), before their first championship bout.
Stallone opened up about his absence, explaining that Creed III took a different direction than he would've taken it. "It's a different philosophy... I like my heroes beat up, but I just don't want them going into that dark place. I just feel people have enough darkness."
Rocky V (1990)
With his character's death, Carl Weathers departed the franchise after Rocky IV.
We later learn in Creed that he no longer lives in Philly. Adonis Johnson Creed asks Rocky about his son. Rocky explains that he moved to Vancouver with his girlfriend and got a good job there. Rocky says that he moved because he was tired of being remembered as just Rocky Balboa's son, that was just a rumour.