Sylvester Stallone

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Sylvester Stallone

Stallone in 1988
Birth name Sylvester Stallone
Born July 6, 1946 (age 60)
New York City, USA
Official site sylvesterstallone.com
Notable roles Rocky Balboa in Rocky,
John J. Rambo in the Rambo series,
Sheriff Freddy Heflin in Cop Land
Academy Awards
Nominated for: Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen in 1977 for Rocky
Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky".
Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky".

Sylvester Stallone (born July 6, 1946) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He achieved his greatest successes in a number of action films, notably the Rocky and Rambo series. He is often referred to by his nickname, "Sly".

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Stallone was born in Hell's Kitchen, New York to Frank Stallone and Jacqueline "Jackie" Labofish, an astrologer. Stallone's father was an immigrant from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily while his mother is American. One of his maternal great-grandmothers, Rosa Rabinovich, was from Odessa,Ukraine.[2]At fifteen, his classmates voted him the one "most likely to end up in the electric chair."[citation needed] In the 1960s, Stallone attended the American College of Switzerland, 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.[3]

[edit] Early film roles

Stallone's career began with the leading role, Stud, in a hard-core pornographic film called Party at Kitty and Stud's. The film was originally hard core and depicted sexual acts, but after Stallone's later success, the film was re-cut to soft-core and re-packaged as Italian Stallion (a reference to Rocky Balboa's nickname).

Stallone's 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 Prisoner of 2nd Avenue (1975) as a youth. In the Lemmon film, Jack Lemmon chases and tackles Stallone, thinking he is a pickpocket. He had his first starring role in the cult hit The Lords of Flatbush (1974). In 1975 he appeared in 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.

[edit] Success with Rocky and stardom

Sylvester Stallone: footprints and hands stamped at Hollywood walkthrough
Sylvester Stallone: footprints and hands stamped at Hollywood walkthrough

Stallone 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 two for Stallone himself, for Best Actor and for Best Original Screenplay. In addition to winning Best Picture, Rocky won for Best Director and Best Film Editing. Rocky cost about US$1.1 million to make, and grossed about US$225 million worldwide. The sequel Rocky II was released in 1979 and also became a major success, grossing US$200 million worldwide. The Rocky series has made the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art a Philadelphia tourist attraction.

On the list of the top heroes of all time by American Film Institute (AFI) in 2003, Stallone is listed seventh as Rocky Balboa behind Gregory Peck (Atticus Finch), Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), Sean Connery (James Bond), Humphrey Bogart (Rick Blaine), Gary Cooper (Will Kane) and Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling).

Sylvester Stallone in one of his earlier films, "F.I.S.T".
Sylvester Stallone in one of his earlier films, "F.I.S.T".

Apart from the Rocky films, Stallone did many other films in the 1970s and early 1980s with mixed success. He received critical praise for films such as F.I.S.T (1978), a drama in which he plays a warehouse worker, who becomes involved in the labor union leadership, Paradise Alley (1978) in which he plays a con-artist of three brothers and he along with his other brother try to help the one involved in wrestling and Escape to Victory (1981), a sports drama in which he plays a prisoner of war involved in a Nazi propaganda football tournament. Stallone's first major action-thriller film was 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. These movies were well received, but they did not have box office success.

[edit] Rambo & the 80s

Stallone as Deke DaSilva in "Nighthawks"
Stallone as Deke DaSilva in "Nighthawks"

Stallone had another major franchise success as John Rambo in 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 and in other films. There was an alternate ending shot, that stayed truthful to the book, but they decided not to go that way. Two Rambo sequels followed, with much less critical praise then the orginal, but was a huge box office hit. Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), and Rambo III (1988). He also continued his success with the Rocky franchise and wrote, directed and starred in two more sequels to the series Rocky III (1982) and Rocky IV (1985). Many considered him the most famous film star of the 80s and one of the most popular celebrities of the decade. 1986's Cobra and 1989's Tango and Cash continued the hit parade, further solidifying Stallone's fanbase.

[edit] 1990s

At the start of the 90s, 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 a 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 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 in Judge Dredd which was based on the British comic book 2000 AD. His overseas box office appeal even saved the domestic box office disappointment of Judge Dredd with a worldwide tally of $113 million. 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.

Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro in Cop Land.
Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro in Cop Land.

Following his breakthrough performance in Rocky, critic Roger Ebert had once said he could become the next Marlon Brando - however arguably Stallone had never recaptured the critical acclaim he won in Rocky. Stallone did however receive acclaim for his role in 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. It could be said, that due to the lack of box office draws, when Stallone would take a venture out of action and more into drama, was the cause for Stallone to return to his action flicks so often. In 1998 he did voice-over work for the computer-animated film Antz.

[edit] 2000s

As the new millennium began, Stallone's career went into decline after he starred in a string of critical and commercial failures such as Get Carter (2000) Driven (2001) and D-Tox (2002). 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 moderate box office success but Stallone's performance as the villain was critically panned. Stallone did receive some critical praise in the neo-noir crime drama movie Shade (2003), where he played "The Dean", the legendary card sharp. 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 a co-presenter of the NBC Reality TV boxing series The Contender alongside Sugar Ray Leonard.

[edit] Current status

After three years since he last appeared in a film, he made a comeback in 2006 with the sixth and final installment of the Rocky series, Rocky Balboa, which was a critical and commercial hit. After the critical and box office failure of the previous and presumably last installment Rocky V, Stallone decided that he should end the series with a sixth installment which would be a much more appropriate climax to the series. The total domestic box office gross is coming to a close with just over 70 million, almost four times its production budget. His performance in Rocky Balboa has been praised and garnered mostly positive reviews.[4]

Stallone is currently in production on the latest Rambo sequel John Rambo.

It was also recently announced that Sylvester Stallone would be directing a movie on The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, based on the book written by Franz Werfel.[5][6] Stallone is also set to direct a biography on the life of Edgar Allan Poe, which will be titled "Poe" .

According to Yahoo!, Moviehole and Stallonezone, Stallone is in serious talks about joining Quentin Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" and James Cameron's "Avatar". If Stallone does indeed make these films, it will likely push back his other two projects for a later date.[5]

[edit] Director

Stallone's debut as a director came in 1978 with Paradise Alley, which he also wrote and starred in. In addition, he directed Staying Alive (the sequel to Saturday Night Fever), along with Rocky II, III, IV and Rocky Balboa.

[edit] Writer

In addition to writing all six Rocky films, Stallone also wrote Cobra, Driven, and the last Rambo film, John Rambo. He has co-written several other films, such as F.I.S.T., Rhinestone, Over the Top and the first three Rambo films. His last major success as a co-writer came with 1993's Cliffhanger.

[edit] Personal life

[edit] Family

Stallone's family include his brother, former actor/singer Frank Stallone, his mother, Jacqueline Stallone, who achieved notoriety in the middle 1990s as an astrologer and his son, Sage Stallone, who played Rocky's son in 1990's Rocky V and appeared in his 1996 movie, Daylight. At the time of ownership, Stallone's pet Bullmastiff, Butkus Stallone, appeared in the first Rocky film as an often-teased favorite pet of Balboa's who lived in Adrian's pet shop.

[edit] Marriages

Stallone has been married three times, to Sasha Czack (1974–1985), Brigitte Nielsen (1985–1987), and Jennifer Flavin (1997–present). 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 Scarlett 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, Pamela Anderson, Naomi Campbell and Janice Dickinson. Dickinson once believed that Stallone was the father of her daughter Savannah.[7]

[edit] Growth Hormone Controversy

Stallone has been charged with importing 48 vials of the human growth hormone (HGH) Jintropin into Australia on a 2007 trip to promote Rocky Balboa. He faces a $22,000 fine, but no jail time.[8]

[edit] Planet Hollywood

He owns shares in Planet Hollywood restaurants with Bruce Willis and formerly Arnold Schwarzenegger (who has since sold his part).

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • Stallone asked Carl Weathers, Mr. T, and Dolph Lundgren for permission to use footage from their appearances in the earlier Rocky movies for Rocky Balboa. Mr. T and Dolph Lundgren gave him their graces, however Carl Weathers wanted an actual part in the movie even though his character died in Rocky 4 stated by Stallone on Jimmy Kimmel Live Dec. 21, 2006. Stallone refused and Weathers decided not to allow Stallone to use his image for Rocky flashbacks from the previous movies. They instead decided to use new footage of a fighter who looks similar to Weathers.
  • His trademark sneer and slurred speech are the result of paralysis in the left side of his face caused by birth complications.[9]
  • Turned down lead roles in blockbuster hits Romancing the Stone, 48 Hours, Se7en, Pretty Woman, Frequency, Die Hard, Witness, Beverly Hills Cop, Basic Instinct, Pulp Fiction (role of Butch Coolidge that later went to Bruce Willis), Jackie Brown (Max Cherry role that later went to Robert Forster), The Negotiator (later went to Samuel L. Jackson), and Enemy of the State.[citation needed]
  • Was developing an action adventure film called Gale Force in 1990 with Renny Harlin about pirates attacking a coastal town in the middle of a windstorm. The project was cancelled due to budget concerns. Plans for a team up comedy with John Candy titled Bartholomew and Neff also fell through. Stallone was also developing a hollywood remake of the Hong Kong action hit The Killer in 1993 which also was shelved.[citation needed]
  • The 1997 film Face/Off starring Nicolas Cage and John Travolta was originally conceived as a sci-fi film and written specifically for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Unmade film projects include sci-fi scripts Fatalis (pre-historic animals loose in a futuristic LA) and Hunter (A tracker and a special forces team are unleashed into the wilderness to track down a bloodythirsty genetically enhanced pre-historic monster) which were part of his 60 million dollar 3 film deal with Universal that was scrapped upon the domestic failure of 1996's Daylight. He was originally set to star in the sci-fi film Isobar with Kim Basinger and Joel Silver producing in 1990. It fell through when Dean Devlin quit the project over script issues with Carolco. The film revolved around a futuristic supersonic train traveling between LA and Tokyo in a post-apocalyptic world. During the trip, a genetic mutant unleashes horror upon the passengers of the train in a claustrophobic nightmarish fashion. The movie has been revived and is set to release in 2007 with a new cast.
  • Cobra and Judge Dredd were intended to spawn franchises, but due to their lukewarm reception at the boxoffice, those plans were cancelled. Cliffhanger had a sequel script written for it entitled The Dam but this was later retooled as a separate film entitled Daylight which Stallone made in 1996.
  • Sustained serious injuries making the Rambo films, particularly First Blood. In that film, he attempts to jump from a cliff into a tree. The look of pain he shows in the film is in fact real as the branches were lodged in his chest, breaking ribs and puncturing a lung.
  • Does most of his own stunts including much of the dangerous stuntwork in the Rambo films and Cliffhanger. He overcame serious agoraphobia to make Cliffhanger. His willingness to go to extreme lengths to make the stuntwork in his films as authentic as possible is matched only by another action movie legend, Jackie Chan.
  • Is good friends with Planet Hollywood pals Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Don Johnson.
  • Widely considered to have inspired the one-man army action films of the 1980s with the genre classic First Blood.
  • Stallone claims to have been able to bench press 385-400 lbs and squat 500 lbs 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 veiny than the other.[10]
  • With the monetary success of the Rocky films, Stallone gave professional wrestler Hulk Hogan his first mainstream exposure, personally offering him the role as the character Thunderlips in 1982's Rocky III. Stallone inducted Hogan into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005.
  • He and The Contender co-host Sugar Ray Leonard were pallbearers at the funeral of Najai Turpin, a former contestant on the show.
  • According to NNDB.com, "Stallone has always been politically active, but his politics defy easy labels. He has written checks for candidates as far to the left as Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer, and as far right as John Ashcroft and Rick Santorum."[6]. However, he has openly been known to identify himself as a Republican. In his book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations," Al Franken cited Stallone as one of the biggest Republican supporters in Hollywood.
  • He is one of President George W. Bush's two favorite actors. The other is fellow action hero and conservative Chuck Norris. Both men attended Bush's inauguration as President in 2001.
  • Stallone and President Bush share the same birthday.
  • Stallone supported President Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial and hosted a Democratic fundraiser at his Miami home on 9 July 1998.
  • A long-time American football fan and supporter of the Philadelphia Eagles, Stallone used his Rocky persona to introduce Monday Night Football on ABC; set in a gymnasium, he pounded a punch ball, glared at the camera with clenched fist and uttered the signature tagline "Are ya ready for some football?".
  • On January 14, 2007, Stallone was at Goodison Park to promote Rocky Balboa, and to watch Everton take on Reading. The match ended as a 1-1 draw. After receiving a brilliant reception from over 30,000 fans he now claims to be an official Everton fan.[11]
  • Stallone's films have grossed over $1.7 billion in the USA and over $3.5 billion worldwide.
  • Attended a private school in the Romandy (Switzerland). Stallone was not a very good student but he took part in the play Death of a Salesman which made him want to become an actor.
  • Stallone and his entourage of five was delayed from leaving Sydney Airport by Australian Customs Officials on February 16, 2007 for bringing prohibited items into Australia. Stallone had arrived in Australia for the premiere of Rocky Balboa.[12]

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Films

[edit] Television Appearances

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ http://www.celebheights.com/s/Sylvester-Stallone-347.html
  2. ^ "Incredible: Is It Stallone or Rabinovich?", Pravda, 2002-09-30. Retrieved on 2006-11-23.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Rocky Balboa at RottenTomatoes
  5. ^ [2]
  6. ^ [3]
  7. ^ [4]
  8. ^ "Sly 'tried to import hormone'", 2007-03-13. Retrieved on 2007-03-13.
  9. ^ The Biography Channel (2007). Sylvester Stallone Biography. Retrieved on February 1, 2007.
  10. ^ http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30861
  11. ^ Everton 1-1 Reading. Nathan Mercer (2007-01-14). Retrieved on 2007-01-14.
  12. ^ Belinda Tasker, NEWS.com.au (2007). Stallone's trip off to rocky start. Retrieved on February 17, 2007.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:


Persondata
NAME Stallone, Sylvester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone
SHORT DESCRIPTION American film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/y/l/Sylvester_Stallone_7277.html"