Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (/stəˈloʊn/; born July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics' Choice Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards. Stallone is one of only two actors in history (alongside Harrison Ford) to have starred in a box-office No. 1 film across six consecutive decades.[2][3]
Sylvester Stallone
July 6, 1946
- Sylvester Enzio Stallone[1]
- "Sly" Stallone
- Actor
- filmmaker
1968–present
- Frank Stallone Sr. (father)
- Jackie Stallone (mother)
Frank Stallone (brother)
Struggling as an actor for a number of years upon moving to New York City in 1969, Stallone found gradual work in films such as The Lords of Flatbush (1974). He achieved his greatest critical and commercial success starting in 1976 with his iconic role as boxer Rocky Balboa in the first film of the successful Rocky franchise, which he also wrote.[4] In 1977, he became the third actor in history to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. He portrayed the PTSD-plagued soldier John Rambo in First Blood (1982), a role he would play across five Rambo films (1982–2019). From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, Stallone would go on to become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors acting in action films such as Cobra (1986), Tango and Cash (1989), Cliffhanger (1993), Demolition Man (1993), and The Specialist (1994). He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984.
Stallone continued his established roles in Rocky Balboa (2006) and Rambo (2008) before launching The Expendables film franchise (2010–present), in which he starred as the mercenary Barney Ross. In 2013, he starred in the successful film Escape Plan and appeared in its sequels. In 2015, he returned to Rocky again with Creed, in which a retired Rocky mentors former rival Apollo Creed's son Donnie Creed. The film brought Stallone widespread praise and his first Golden Globe Award, as well as a third Academy Award nomination, having been first nominated for the same role 40 years prior. Since 2022, he has starred in the Paramount+ crime series Tulsa King.
Early life and education
Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone[5][6][7] was born in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City's Manhattan borough[8] on July 6, 1946,[9] the elder son of women's professional wrestling promoter Jacqueline "Jackie" Stallone (née Labofish; 1921–2020) and hairdresser Francesco "Frank" Stallone Sr. (1919–2011).[10] His mother was an American from Washington, D.C. with Breton French[11] and Ukrainian Jewish ancestry,[12][13][14] while his father was an Italian immigrant from Gioia del Colle[10] who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s.[15][16] His younger brother is actor and musician Frank Stallone.[10] Many biographies of Stallone indicate that his birth name is "Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone" and his mother explained in an interview that she originally named him "Tyrone" because she admired the actor Tyrone Power, but Stallone's father changed it to "Sylvester". His nickname as a child was "Binky" but he chose to go by the nickname of Mike/Michael after schoolmates began calling him "Stinky".[5][6][7] His middle name "Gardenzio" is an alteration of the Italian given name "Gaudenzio" and he usually shortened it to "Enzio".[1]
Complications during Stallone's birth forced his mother's obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps while delivering him, accidentally severing a nerve in the process.[17][18] This caused paralysis of the lower left side of his face (including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin) which gave him his signature snarling look and slurred speech.[18][19] As a result, he was bullied in his childhood, with which he coped by getting into bodybuilding and acting.[20] He spent part of his infancy in foster and boarding care, rejoining and moving back with his family to Maryland when he was five. In the early 1950s, his father moved the family to his mother's native Washington, D.C. to open a beauty school. In 1954, his mother opened a women's gym called Barbella's.[21][22] He initially stayed with his father following his parents' divorce when he was 11, but joined his remarried mother in Philadelphia when he was 15.[23]
Stallone attended Notre Dame Academy and Abraham Lincoln High School in Philadelphia,[24] and Charlotte Hall Military Academy in Charlotte Hall, Maryland, prior to attending Miami Dade College.[25] He spent two years, from September 1965 to June 1967, at the American College of Switzerland. He returned to the United States to study as a drama major at the University of Miami, from 1967 to 1969.[26] After Stallone's request that his acting and life experiences be accepted in exchange for his remaining needed college credits to graduate, he was granted a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree by the University of Miami in 1998.[27][28]
Film and stage career
1968–1976: early roles to breakthrough
Until 1969, he appeared on the stage under the name Mike Stallone; in 1970, he started using the stage name Sylvester E. Stallone. While attending the University of Miami, Stallone had a role in the drama That Nice Boy (aka The Square Root), filmed in 1968.[29][30][31] Moreover, he and John Herzfeld worked together in 1969 on a low-budget self-produced film called "Horses".[32]
Stallone had his first starring role in the softcore pornography feature film The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970). He was paid US$200 for two days' work.[33] Stallone later explained that he had done the film out of desperation after being evicted from his apartment and finding himself homeless for several days. He has also said that he slept three weeks in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City prior to seeing a casting notice for the film. In the actor's words, "it was either do that movie or rob someone, because I was at the end – the very end – of my rope".[34] The film was released several years later as Italian Stallion, in order to cash in on Stallone's newfound fame (the new title was taken from Stallone's nickname since Rocky). Stallone also starred in the erotic off-Broadway stage play Score which ran for 23 performances at the Martinique Theatre from October 28 to November 15, 1971, and was later made into the 1974 film Score by Radley Metzger.[35]
After moving to New York City, Stallone shared an apartment with his girlfriend, Sasha Czack, an aspiring actress who supported them by working as a waitress.[36] Stallone took odd jobs around this time, including being a cleaner at a zoo, and a theater usher; he was fired from the latter for scalping tickets. He furthered his writing skills by frequenting a local library, and became interested in the works of Edgar Allan Poe.[37]
In 1972, Stallone was on the verge of giving up on having an acting career; in what he later described as a low point, he tried and failed to get a job as an extra in The Godfather.[38][39] Instead, he was relegated to a background role in another Hollywood hit, What's Up, Doc?, starring Barbra Streisand. Stallone is hardly visible in his two appearances.
Stallone happened to be acting in a play that a friend invited him to partake in, and an agent in attendance thought that Stallone fit the role of Stanley, a main character in The Lords of Flatbush, which had a start-stop schedule from 1972 to 1974 over budget issues.[40] Stallone, around mid-1973, achieved his first proper starring role, in the independent film No Place to Hide, playing a man who is associated with a New York–based urban terrorist movement, with a jewelry-seller as his love interest. The film was re-cut and retitled Rebel years later, this second version featuring Stallone as its star. In 1990, this film was re-edited with outtakes from the original film and newly shot matching footage, then redubbed – in the style of Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily? – into a parody of itself titled A Man Called... Rainbo.
Stallone's other first few film roles were minor, and included brief uncredited appearances in MASH (1970), as a soldier sitting at a table; Pigeons (1970), as a party guest; Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), as a subway thug; in the psychological thriller Klute (1971), as an extra dancing in a club; and in the Jack Lemmon film The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), as a youth. In the latter film, Jack Lemmon's character chases, tackles, and mugs Stallone, thinking that Stallone's character is a pickpocket. He had his second starring role in 1974, in The Lords of Flatbush.[18] In 1975, he played supporting roles in Farewell, My Lovely; Capone; and Death Race 2000. He made guest appearances on the TV series Police Story and Kojak. He is also supposedly in Mandingo. It is often said that his scene was deleted.[41]
Stallone gained worldwide fame with his starring role in the smash hit Rocky (1976), a sports drama about a struggling boxer, Rocky Balboa, taking on heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.[18] On March 24, 1975, Stallone saw the Muhammad Ali vs. Chuck Wepner fight. That night Stallone went home, and after three days he had completed the first draft of Rocky.[42] Stallone subsequently denied that Wepner provided any inspiration for the script; however, Wepner filed a lawsuit which was eventually settled with Stallone for an undisclosed amount.[43][44] Other possible inspirations for the film may have included Rocky Graziano's autobiography Somebody Up There Likes Me, and the film of the same name. Stallone attempted to sell the script to multiple studios, with the intention of playing the lead role himself. Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff became interested and offered Stallone US$350,000 for the rights, but they had their own casting ideas for the lead role, including Robert Redford and Burt Reynolds. Stallone refused to sell unless he played the lead character – and, eventually, after a substantial budget cut to compromise, it was agreed he could be the star.[45] Upon its release, critic Roger Ebert stated that Stallone could become the next Marlon Brando.
In 1977, at the 49th Academy Awards, Rocky was nominated for ten Oscars, including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay nominations for Stallone. The film went on to win the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Film Editing. Rocky has since been inducted into the National Film Registry and had its props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps, and the city has a statue of the Rocky character placed permanently near the museum. The character was also voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Multiple tasks in media
In 1977, for the first Rocky, Stallone became the third man in history to receive the two nominations for best actor and best screenplay, after Charlie Chaplin and Orson Welles.[127] Like the aforementioned he wrote and took on the leading role in the film. Stallone is known for his recurring roles as Rocky Balboa, John Rambo, and Barney Ross. Stallone wrote and starred in all of six Rocky films, while taking on the task of directing in four of the sequels. Stallone starred and co-wrote the five films of the Rambo franchise, and the fourth one he also directed. Stallone wrote, directed and took the lead role in the first installment of The Expendables films. Stallone directed, starred and wrote in Paradise Alley. John Travolta starred in Staying Alive, a sequel of Saturday Night Fever, which Stallone wrote and directed. Stallone wrote and starred in Cobra, and Driven. Stallone co-wrote and starred in F.I.S.T., Rhinestone, Over the Top, Cliffhanger, and Creed II.
Asked in February 2008 which of the icons (Rocky or Rambo) he would rather be remembered for, Stallone said "it's a tough one, but Rocky is my first baby, so Rocky."[128] He also stated that Rocky could be interpreted as the "conscious" and Rambo as the "unconscious" of the same character.[129]
Stallone has occasionally sung in his films. He sang "Too Close to Paradise" for Paradise Alley (1978), with the music provided by Bill Conti (who also collaborated with Stallone in prior years, having recorded the famous "Gonna Fly Now" theme for his Academy Award-nominated film, Rocky (1976) which was a U.S. No. 1 hit).[130] In Rocky III (1982), Stallone (as Rocky Balboa) sang "Take Me Back" to his on-screen wife, Adrian (Talia Shire), as they lay in bed. The song was first performed by singer and younger brother, Frank, who had a small role in the original Rocky. For Rhinestone (1984), Stallone sang such songs as "Drinkenstein" as well as duets with his co-star, and actual country music star, Dolly Parton.[131] He also performed two songs when he guest-starred on The Muppet Show in the 1980s, at the height of his career.[132] The last time Stallone sang in a film was in Grudge Match (2013) when he and Robert De Niro performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" together.[133]
Over the course of his career Stallone has received a Golden Globe Award from three nominations, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, a People's Choice Award, and international prizes from the César Awards, David di Donatello, and the Venice International Film Festival, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards.