About Me
"Fan page dedicated to Sylvester Stallone"Early life
Stallone was born in New York City, New York, the son of Jackie Stallone (née Labofish), an astrologer, former dancer, and promoter of women's wrestling, and Frank Stallone, Sr., an actor, singer, and hairdresser. Stallone's father was an immigrant from Gioia del Colle (province of Bari, Apulia, Italy). Stallone grew up in Northeast Philadelphia and attended Lincoln High School, whose band plays at the dedication of the Rocky statue in Rocky III. He later attended a private boarding school, The Glenholme School, in Washington, Connecticut. In the 1960s, Stallone attended the American College of Switzerland in Leysin, and the University of Miami for three years. He came within a few credit hours of graduation before he decided to drop out and pursue an acting career. 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.Early film roles, 1970-1977
Stallone made his film debut with the lead in a 1970 hardcore pornographic film, Party at Kitty and Stud's. He was paid US$200 for two days work. Scenes of sexual penetration were edited out on later releases of the film designed to cash in on Stallone's fame. These releases were re-packaged under the names of Italian Stallion (taken from Stallone's nickname and a line from the film) and Cocky (a pun on Rocky).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 vehicle The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) as a youth. In the Lemmon film, Jack Lemmon chases and tackles and mugs Stallone, thinking that Stallone's character is a pickpocket. He had his first starring role in the cult hit The Lords of Flatbush (1974). In 1975, he played supporting roles in Farewell, My Lovely, Capone and, another cult hit, Death Race 2000. He also made guest appearances on the TV series Police Story and Kojak.Success with Rocky, 1976Stallone did not gain world-wide fame until his starring role in the smash hit Rocky (1976).The film was awarded the 1976 Academy Award for Best Picture. On March 24, 1975, Stallone saw the Ali-Chuck Wepner fight which inspired the foundation idea of Rocky. That night Stallone went home, and in three days 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 (which was suggested by Stallone after a casting), and planned on courting a star like Burt Reynolds or James Caan for the lead role. The final result was an unequalled success; Rocky was nominated for ten Academy Awards in all, including Best Actor for Stallone himself.Rocky, Rambo and new film roles, 1978-1989
The sequel Rocky II which Stallone had also written and directed was released in 1979 and also became a major success, grossing US$200 million worldwide.Apart from the Rocky films, Stallone did many other films in the late 1970s and early 1980s which were critically acclaimed but were not successful at the box office. 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 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.In the early 1980s he starred alongside British veteran Michael Caine in Victory
(1981), a sports drama in which he plays a prisoner of war involved in a Nazi propaganda football (soccer) tournament. Stallone then made the action thriller film Nighthawks (1981), in which he plays a New York city cop who plays a cat and mouse game with a foreign terrorist, played by Rutger Hauer.Stallone had another major franchise success as Vietnam veteran John Rambo in the action adventure film First Blood
(1982). The first installment of Rambo was both a critical and box office success. The critics praised Stallone's performance, saying he made Rambo seem human as opposed to the way he is portrayed in the book of the same name First Blood and in the other films. Two Rambo sequels Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Rambo III (1988) 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). It was during this time period that Stallone's cultivated a strong overseas following. He also attempted roles in different genres when he 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) where he played a truck driver who enters an arm wrestling competition to impress his estranged son. But these films did not do well at the box office and were poorly received by critics. The action films Cobra (1986) and Tango and Cash
(1989) did solid business domestically but overseas they did blockbuster business grossing over 100 million dollars foreign and over 160 million worldwide. The Rocky and Rambo franchises at the end of the decade were billion dollar franchises internationally.1990-2002
At the start of the 1990s, Stallone starred in the fifth installment of the Rocky franchise Rocky V which was considered a box office disappointment and was also disliked by fans as an unworthy entry in the series. It was intended to have been the last installment in the franchise at the time.After starring in the critical and commercial failures Oscar (1991) and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) during the early 90s, he made a major comeback in 1993 with the blockbuster hit Cliffhanger
which became an enormously successful film grossing over US$255 million worldwide. Later that year he enjoyed another hit with the futuristic action film Demolition Man
which grossed in excess of $158 million worldwide. 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 who was taken from the popular British comic book 2000 AD in the film of the same name. His overseas box office appeal even saved the domestic box office disappointment of Judge Dredd with a worldwide tally of $113 million. He also appeared in film "Assassins (1995)" with co stars Julianne Moore and Antonio Banderas. In 1996 he starred in the disaster movie Daylight which made only $33 million in the U.S but was a major hit overseas taking in over $126 million, totaling $159,212,469 worldwide. Originally "Daylight"
had been penned as "Cliff Hanger II".In 1996, Stallone, along with an all-star cast of celebrities, appeared in the Trey Parker and Matt Stone short comedy film Your Studio and You commissioned by the Seagram Company for a party celebrating their acquisition of Universal Studios and the MCA Corporation. Stallone speaks in his Rocky Balboa voice with subtitles translating what he was saying. At one point, Stallone starts yelling about how can they use his Balboa character, that he left it in the past; the narrator calms him with a wine cooler and calling him, "brainiac." In response, Stallone says, "Thank you very much." He then looks at the wine cooler and exclaims, "Fucking cheap studio!"Following his breakthrough performance in Rocky, critic Roger Ebert had once said Stallone could become the next Marlon Brando, though he never quite recaptured the critical acclaim achieved with Rocky. Stallone did, however, go onto receive much acclaim for his role in the crime drama Cop Land
(1997) in which he starred alongside Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta, but the film was only a minor success at the box office. His performance led him to win the Stockholm International Film Festival Best Actor Award. In 1998 he did voice-over work for the computer-animated film Antz, which grossed over 90 million domestically.As the new millennium began, Stallone starred in the thriller Get Carter—a remake of the 1971 British Michael Caine film of the same name—but was poorly received by both critics and audiences and was a box office failure. Stallone's career declined considerably after his subsequent films Driven
(2001), Avenging Angelo (2002) and D-Tox (2002) also failed to do well at the box office and were poorly received by critics.2003-2005
In 2003, he played a villainous role in the third installment of the Spy Kids trilogy Spy Kids 3-D: Game
Over which was a huge box office success (almost 200 million worldwide). Stallone also had a cameo appearance in the 2003 French film Taxi 3 as a passenger.Following several poorly reviewed box office flops, Stallone started to regain prominence for his supporting role in the neo-noir crime drama Shade (2003) which was a box office failure but was praised by critics. He was also attached to star and direct a film about the murder of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls titled Notorious but the film has yet to be made due to the legal problems concerning the movie.In 2005, he was the co-presenter alongside Sugar Ray Leonard of the NBC Reality television boxing series The Contender. That same year he also made a guest appearance in two episodes of the television series Las Vegas. 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.2006 & 2008 : Revisiting Rocky Balboa and Rambo
After a few years hiatus from films, Stallone made a comeback to in 2006 with the sixth and final installment of his successful Rocky series; Rocky Balboa, which was both a critical and commercial hit. After the critical and box office failure of the previous and presumed last installment Rocky V, Stallone had decided to end the series with a sixth installment which would be a more appropriate climax to the series. The total domestic box office gross came to a close with US$70.2 million (an impressive US$155.3 million worldwide), almost three times its production budget. His performance in Rocky Balboa
has been praised and garnered mostly positive reviews.Stallone's newest release is the fourth installment of his other successful movie franchise Rambo with the sequel being titled simply Rambo. The film is experiencing very positive buzz due to a favorable reception of its rough cut trailer for Cannes.Future projectsNext on Stallone's agenda is one of his dream projects. He will direct (but not star in) a biography on the life of Edgar Allan Poe, which will be titled Poe. He is also considering starring in and directing a remake of the 1974 Michael Winner thriller, Death Wish.Stallone has also been linked to Inglorious Bastards, a Quentin Tarantino film, which is set to be Tarantino's next project.Personal life.
Other famous members in Stallone's family are his brother, actor/singer Frank Stallone
and his mother, Jackie Stallone, who achieved notoriety in the middle 1990s as an astrologist and as a professional wrestler. Stallone's pet Bullmastiff, Butkus, appeared in Both Rocky And Rocky II as an often-teased favorite pet of Balboa's who lived in Adrian's pet shop.Stallone has been married three times, to Sasha Czack (1974–1985), Brigitte Nielsen (1985–1987), and Jennifer Flavin
(1997— ). He has five children, sons Sage Moonblood and Seargeoh, who is autistic (with Czack, born 1976 and 1979 respectively), and daughters Sophia Rose, Sistine Rose and Scarlet Rose (with Flavin, born 1996, 1998, 2002 respectively). He and Flavin, an Irish-American, were married at Winston Churchill's birthplace, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England. In addition to these marriages, he has had romantic relationships with models Susan Anton, Angie Everhart, Naomi Campbell, and Janice Dickinson.Stallone claims to have been able to bench press 385-400 lbs (174.6-181.4 kg) and squat 500 lbs (226.8 kg) in his prime. While in a bench pressing contest with former Mr. Olympia Franco Columbu, he severely tore his pectoral muscle and needed over 160 stitches on it. This is why one half of his chest is more vascular than the other.On January 14, 2007, Stallone was at Goodison Park to promote Rocky Balboa, and to watch Everton take on Reading in an English Premier League game. The match ended as a 1–1 draw. Stallone paraded on the field at half time adorned in a home team scarfe and received a warm reception from the 40,000 fans. Stallone has claimed to be a keen soccer fan since filming Escape to Victory in the 1980s and now claims to be an official Everton fan.In July 2007, Stallone had a tattoo done by world renowned tattoo artist Mike Devries on his upper right arm of a portrait of his wife, Jennifer Flavin. Incorporated into the tattoo is three roses for their three girls that have Rose for middle names. The tattoo took about 14 hours and isn't finished, it will be expanded onto Stallone's chest a bit.Stallone reportedly became a Christian during the filming of Rocky Balboa, as reported in an issue of Wizard Magazine, which has impacted the storyline to the new Rambo entry, Rambo.In a FOX News interview that ran on January 24th 2008, Stallone said he currently supports John McCain for the 2008 Republican US presidential nomination.
