Mickey Goldmill

In the first film, Goldmill manages his gym.[2] One of the regulars in his gym is Rocky Balboa, a local club fighter who had never realized his potential and had instead become a collector for a local loan shark. Goldmill does not treat Balboa with much respect, and evicts him from his locker at the gym. Deep down, however, Goldmill wants Balboa to fulfill his great potential.

When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed gives Balboa an unlikely shot at the title, Goldmill approaches him about being his manager. Based on their uneasy prior relationship, Balboa is initially resistant, but nevertheless agrees to let Goldmill train him. The match takes place on January 1, 1976 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. While Balboa loses the match to Creed based on scoring by the judges, he manages to last the full 15 rounds, a first for any of Creed's opponents.

Rocky II picks up directly after the first film. Creed challenges Balboa to a rematch while Balboa is still in the hospital. Goldmill states that there will be no rematch and that Balboa won the match. Eventually, after Creed's efforts at publicly embarrassing Balboa into a fight, Goldmill again becomes Balboa's trainer for the rematch. For the second fight with Creed, Goldmill utilizes unique training methods (such as chasing and attempting to catch a chicken) to help Balboa gain speed. He also converts Balboa from a left-handed fighting style to a right-handed style in an effort to both confuse Creed and to protect an eye Balboa had a detached retina in the previous match. The rematch takes place and, after an almost double-KO, Balboa is able to get up and wins.

At the beginning of Rocky III, set three years after Rocky won the championship, Goldmill trains Balboa to a series of successful title defenses, before both men decide that it is time for them to retire (Goldmill, now living with the Balboas in a mansion outside of Philadelphia, is suffering heart problems by this time, though he keeps this hidden from Balboa). But the brutal challenger James "Clubber" Lang accuses the two of avoiding him, publicly taunting Balboa and making rude remarks to his wife Adrian. Finally, Balboa agrees to face Lang in a match which he figures will be his last title defense. Goldmill tells Balboa that he will have to do it alone if he decides to have a match against Lang, later admitting that all of his challengers were hand-picked, "good fighters" but not "killers" like Lang. Upon this reveal, Balboa is even more eager to accept the challenge in order to prove his worth, and is eventually able to convince Goldmill to train him anyway, with the promise that this would be their last match.

The matchup is set for August 15, 1981. Shortly before the match, Balboa and Lang's entourages erupt into a pandemonium free-for-all backstage, and Goldmill, trying to break it up, is pushed against a wall by Land, and goes into cardiac arrest. Balboa attempts to call off the match due to Goldmill's condition, but Goldmill refuses to allow him to stop now. His condition worsens as the match goes on, but Goldmill refuses to go to the hospital until the match is over. Balboa, still distraught over losing Goldmill, is not fully focused on the match, is quickly overpowered, takes a merciless beating from his opponent. The fight only lasts two rounds before Lang knocks Balboa out.

Eventually, Rocky returns to the dressing room to check on Goldmill's condition. Balboa tells his trainer that the fight ended in a second round knockout but does not tell Goldmill that he lost. Balboa then tries to convince Goldmill that they need to go to the hospital, but instead, he keeps talking, telling Balboa, "I love you, kid", and dies.

He is interred in a Jewish mausoleum outside of Philadelphia, the private service attended by Balboa, his wife Adrian, his brother-in-law Paulie and Goldmill's longtime friend and cornerman Al Silvani.

Balboa later defeats Lang in a rematch with the help of his former nemesis Apollo Creed and Creed's trainer Tony "Duke" Evers.

Meredith reprises the role of Mickey Goldmill in the fifth installment, in a flashback to Balboa's first fight with Creed. Goldmill gives Balboa a cufflink that belonged to Rocky Marciano. He tells Rocky never to give up no matter how much he hurts, and tells him he loves him.

It is revealed that in his will, Goldmill left his gym to Rocky's son, Robert Balboa Jr. This was the last time Burgess Meredith appeared without the use of archival footage, as he died on September 9, 1997.