Sylvester Stallone

Birth Name

Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone

Date of Birth

July 6, 1946

Nick Name

Sly Stallone

Height

 5 feet 10 inches / 177.80 centimeters

Nationality

American

Early life:
Sylvester Stallone was born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone in New York City, the elder son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and Jackie Stallone (born Jacqueline Labofish), an astrologer, former dancer, and promoter of women's wrestling. His younger brother is actor and musician Frank Stallone. Stallone's father was born in Gioia del Colle, Apulia, Italy, and emigrated to the United States as a child. Stallone's mother is of half Russian Jewish and half French descent.


Complications his mother suffered during labor forced her obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during his birth; misuse of these accidentally severed a nerve and caused paralysis in parts of Stallone's face. As a result, the lower left side of his face is paralyzed - including parts of his lip, tongue, and chin - an accident which has given Stallone his snarling look and slightly slurred speech.Stallone was baptized and raised Catholic. He spent his first five years in Hell's Kitchen, bouncing between foster homes while his parents endured a troubled marriage.


His father, a beautician, moved the family to Washington, D.C., where he opened a beauty school. His mother opened a women's gymnasium called Barbella's in 1954. His parents divorced when he was nine, and he eventually lived with his mother. He attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy prior to attending Miami Dade College.




Career:
When Stallone was nearly broke in New York, barely $50 to his name, he sold the script to Paradise Alley for $100.


Italian Stallion and Score:
Stallone had his first starring role in the soft core pornography feature film The Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970). He was paid US$200 for two days' work. 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 New York City Port Authority bus station 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". The film was released several years later as Italian Stallion, in order to cash in on Stallone's new found fame (the new title was taken from Stallone's nickname since Rocky and a line from the film).


Stallone also starred in the erotic off-Broadway stage play Score which ran for 23 performances at the Martinique Theatre from October 28 – November 15, 1971 and was later made into a film by Radley Metzger.




Early film roles, 1970–1975:
In 1970, Stallone appeared in the film No Place to Hide, which was re-cut and retitled Rebel, the second version featuring Stallone as its star. After the style of Woody Allen's What's Up, Tiger Lily?, this film, in 1990, was re-edited from outtakes from the original movie and newly shot matching footage, then redubbed into an award-winning parody of itself titled A Man Called... Rainbo. Again starring Stallone, this self-parody was directed by David Casci and produced by Jeffrey Hilton. A Man Called...Rainbo won Silver Awards at the Chicago International Film Festival and Worldfest – Houston, and was featured on Entertainment Tonight along with its credited star, Sylvester Stallone. It received a Thumbs-Up on Siskel & Ebert, and was recommended by Michael Medved on the popular movie review show, Sneak Previews.


Stallone's other first few film roles were minor, and included brief uncredited appearances in 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 Lemmon 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 The Lords of Flatbush, in 1974. 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.




Success with Rocky, 1976:
Stallone gained worldwide fame with his starring role in the smash hit Rocky (1976). On March 24, 1975, Stallone saw the Muhammad Ali–Chuck Wepner fight, which inspired the foundation idea of Rocky. That night Stallone went home, and after three days, 20 straight hours he had written the script for Rocky. After that, he tried to sell the script with the intention of playing the lead role. Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler in particular liked the script. Stallone was offered increasingly larger fees to sell the script and allow a different actor to star in the film, but he turned the offers down until the studio agreed to let Stallone himself play the role. Rocky was nominated for ten Academy Awards, 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, Rambo, and new film roles, 1978–1989:
The sequel Rocky II, which Stallone had also written and directed (replacing John G. Avildsen, who won an Academy Award for directing the first film), was released in 1979, and also became a major success, grossing $200 million.


He received critical praise for films such as F.I.S.T. (1978), a social, epic styled drama in which he plays a warehouse worker, very loosely modeled on James Hoffa, who becomes involved in the labor union leadership, and Paradise Alley (1978), a family drama in which he plays one of three brothers who is a con artist and who helps his other brother who is involved in wrestling. Stallone made his directorial debut directing Paradise Alley.


In the early 1980s, he starred alongside British veteran Michael Caine in Escape to Victory (1981).Stallone then made the action thriller film Nighthawks (1981).


Stallone launched another major franchise success, starring as Vietnam veteran John Rambo, a former Green Beret, in the action-war film First Blood (1982).


Three Rambo sequels, Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008), followed. Although box office hits, they met with much less critical praise than the original.


He also continued his box office success with the Rocky franchise and wrote, directed, and starred in two more sequels to the series: Rocky III (1982) and Rocky IV (1985). 


He also attempted, albeit unsuccessfully, roles in different genres when he co-wrote and starred in the comedy film Rhinestone (1984) where he played a wannabe country music singer and the drama film Over the Top (1987).


It was around 1985 that Stallone was signed to a remake of the 1939 James Cagney classic Angels With Dirty Faces.



1990–2002:
With the then-recent success of Lock Up[citation needed] and Tango and Cash at the start of the 1990s, Stallone starred in the fifth installment of the Rocky franchise, Rocky V.


After starring in the critical and commercial disasters Oscar (1991) and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) during the early 90s, he made a comeback in 1993 with the hit Cliffhanger.. His string of hits continued with 1994's The Specialist (over $170 million worldwide gross).


In 1995, he played the comic book-based title character Judge Dredd. He also appeared in the thriller Assassins (1995), with Julianne Moore and Antonio Banderas. In 1996, he starred in the disaster film Daylight.


That same year, Stallone, along with an all-star cast of celebrities, appeared in the Trey Parker and Matt Stone short comedy film Your Studio and You.In 2000, Stallone starred in the thriller Get Carter. Stallone's career declined considerably after his subsequent films Driven (2001), Avenging Angelo (2002) and D-Tox (2002).

2003–2005:
In 2003, he played a villainous role in the third installment of the Spy Kids trilogy Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.


Stallone started to regain prominence for his supporting role in the neo-noir crime drama Shade (2003).


In 2005, he was the co-presenter, alongside Sugar Ray Leonard, of the NBC Reality television boxing series The Contender.


In 2005, Stallone also inducted wrestling icon Hulk Hogan, who appeared in Rocky III as a wrestler named Thunderlips, into the WWE Hall of Fame; Stallone was also the person who offered Hogan the cameo in Rocky III.





Revisiting Rocky and Rambo, 2006–2008:
After a three year hiatus from films, Stallone made a comeback in 2006 with the sixth installment of his successful Rocky series, Rocky Balboa.


Stallone's fourth installment of his other successful movie franchise, Rambo, with the sequel being titled simply Rambo.

Other Film Work:
Stallone has continued to express his passion in directing a film on Edgar Allan Poe's life, a script he has been preparing for years. In July 2009, he appeared in a cameo in the Bollywood movie Kambakkht Ishq where he played himself. Stallone also provided the voice of a lion in Kevin James's comedy Zookeeper. Stallone has also mentioned that he would like to adapt a Nelson DeMille novel, The Lion's Game and James Byron Huggin's novel Hunter, which Stallone had the film rights for several years and originally planned to use the plot from Hunter for Rambo V. In 2009, Stallone expressed interest in starring in a remake of Charles Bronson's 1974 movie Death Wish.



2010 onwards:
The Expendables was Stallone's big success of 2010.


Rambo V will now be based on Rambo searching for women who disappeared in a town over the Mexican border.It was confirmed by Stallone himself in May 2010 that he has scrapped Rambo V (and "retired" Rambo) in order to work on The Expendables sequel.

Personal life:
Stallone has been married three times. At age 28, on December 28, 1974, he married Sasha Czack. The couple had two sons, Sage Moonblood (b. May 5, 1976) and Seargeoh (b. 1979). His younger son was diagnosed with autism at an early age. The couple divorced on February 14, 1985. He married model and actress Brigitte Nielsen, on December 15, 1985, in Beverly Hills, California. Stallone and Nielsen's marriage, which lasted two years, and their subsequent divorce, were highly publicized by the tabloid press.In May 1997, Stallone married Jennifer Flavin, with whom he has three daughters: Sophia Rose (b. August 27, 1996), Sistine Rose (b. June 27, 1998), and Scarlet Rose (b. May 25, 2002).


In 2007, he was caught in Australia with 48 vials of the synthetic human growth hormone Jintropin.
After Stallone's request that his acting and life experiences be accepted in exchange for his remaining credits, he was granted a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) degree by the President of the University of Miami in 1999.


Stallone stopped going to church as his acting career progressed. He began to rediscover his childhood faith when his daughter was born ill in 1996, and is now a churchgoing Catholic.


Stallone supports the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and is featured prominently on that organization's website along with other celebrities.




Injuries:
Known for physically demanding roles, and his willingness to do a majority of his own stunts, Stallone has suffered numerous injuries during his acting career. For a scene in Rocky IV, he told Dolph Lundgren "Punch me as hard as you can in the chest." "Next thing I know, I was in intensive care at St. John’s Hospital for four days. It’s stupid!" While filming a fight scene with actor Steve Austin in The Expendables, he broke his neck, which required the insertion of a metal plate.





Sylvester Stallone Awards & Nominations


Sylvester Stallone Filmography



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