Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Enzio Stallone (; born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, (1946-07-06)July 6, 1946) is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, he won his first critical acclaim as an actor for his co-starring role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lords of Flatbush. Stallone subsequently found gradual work as an extra or side character in films with a sizeable budget until he achieved his greatest critical and commercial success as an actor, starting in 1976 with his self-created role as the boxer Rocky Balboa, in the first film of the successful Rocky series (1976–2018). In the films, Rocky is portrayed as an underdog boxer that fights numerous brutal opponents, and wins the world heavyweight championship twice.In 1977, Stallone was the third actor in cinema to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Stallone's film Rocky was 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, Philadelphia has a statue of his character Rocky placed permanently near the museum, and he was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.Up until 1982, Stallone's films were not big box office successes unless they were Rocky sequels, and none received the critical acclaim achieved with the first Rocky. This changed with the successful action film First Blood in which he portrayed the PTSD-plagued soldier John Rambo. He would play the role in a total of five Rambo films (1982–2019). From the mid 1980s through to the late 1990s, Stallone would go on to become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors of that area by appearing in a slew of commercially successful action films, but generally panned by critics. These include Cobra, Tango and Cash, Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, and The Specialist.Stallone saw a decline in popularity in the early 2000s, but rebounded back to prominence in 2006 with a sixth installment in the Rocky series and 2008 with a fourth in the Rambo series. In the 2010s, Stallone launched The Expendables films series (2010–2014), in which he played the lead as the mercenary Barney Ross. In 2013, he starred in the successful Escape Plan, and acted in its sequels. In 2015, Stallone returned to the Rocky series with Creed, that serve as spin-off films focusing on Adonis "Donnie" Creed played by Michael B. Jordan, the son of the ill-fated boxer Apollo Creed, to whom the long retired Rocky is a mentor. Reprising the role brought Stallone praise, and his first Golden Globe award for the first Creed, as well as a third Oscar nomination, having been first nominated for the same role 40 years prior.

Stallone has been married three times. At age 28, on December 28, 1974, he married Sasha Czack. They had two sons, Sage Moonblood Stallone (1976–2012), who died of heart disease at age 36, and Seargeoh (born 1979), who was diagnosed with autism at an early age. The couple divorced on February 14, 1985. Stallone married model and actress Brigitte Nielsen on December 15, 1985 in Beverly Hills, California. Their 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 named Sophia, Sistine, and Scarlet. His daughters were chosen to share the role of Golden Globe Ambassador at the 74th Golden Globe Awards.Stallone maintains a relationship with his brother Frank who contributed the theme songs to Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Staying Alive. In 1983, Frank's song "Far From Over", for Staying Alive, reached the #10 U.S. hit. Frank appears in minor roles, bit parts, and provides music in many films starring Sylvester, most notably in the Rocky films, where Frank played a street corner singer and contributed songs.Stallone was engaged to model Janice Dickinson for less than a year in the early 1990s. Stallone had ended his relationship with Jennifer Flavin via FedEx after Dickinson gave birth to her daughter Savannah in February 1994. It was reported that Stallone was the father, and Savannah was given his surname at birth. They split up when Stallone discovered he was not the father of her daughter. In 1995, Stallone was briefly engaged to model Angie Everhart before rekindling his relationship with Flavin.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 president of the University of Miami in 1999.In 2007, customs officials in Australia discovered 48 vials of the synthetic human growth hormone Jintropin in Stallone's luggage. In a court hearing on May 15, 2007, Stallone pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a controlled substance.Stallone's 48-year-old half-sister, Toni Ann Filiti, died of lung cancer on August 26, 2012. She died at their mother's Santa Monica home after choosing to leave UCLA's hospital.Stallone was the recipient of the Heart of Hollywood Award from the Board of Governors of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in 2016.He was a close friend of Joe Spinell. They had a falling out during the shooting of their final collaboration Nighthawks (1982).

Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone was born in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City on July 6, 1946, the elder son of Francesco "Frank" Stallone Sr., a hairdresser and beautician, and Jacqueline "Jackie" Stallone (née Labofish; 1921–2020), an astrologer, dancer, and promoter of women's wrestling. His Italian father was born in Gioia del Colle, Italy and moved to the U.S. in the 1930s, while his American mother is of French (from Brittany) descent. His younger brother is actor and musician Frank Stallone.Complications suffered by Stallone's mother during labor forced her obstetricians to use two pairs of forceps during his birth; misuse of these forceps 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 gave him his signature snarling look and slurred speech. He was baptized Catholic. His father moved the family to Washington, D.C. in the early 1950s to open a beauty school. In 1954, his mother opened a women's gym called Barbella's. Stallone attended Notre Dame Academy and Lincoln High School in Philadelphia, as well as Charlotte Hall Military Academy, prior to attending Miami Dade College. He spent two years, from September 1965 to June 1967, at the American College of Switzerland and returned to the United States to study as a drama major at the University of Miami, from 1967 to 1969. Until 1969, he appeared at stage under name Mike Stallone, since 1970 he started using stage name Sylvester E. Stallone.