bibliography
NNDB
This is a beta version of NNDB
Search: for

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester StalloneAKA Michael Sylvester Enzio Stallone

Born: 6-Jul-1946
Birthplace: New York City

Gender: Male
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor, Screenwriter, Film Director
Party Affiliation: Republican

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Rocky, Rambo

Sylvester Stallone was a difficult birth, yanked from his mother's womb by a doctor's forceps that severed a facial nerve. 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 trademark snarling look and slightly slurred speech. He spent his first five years in Hell's Kitchen, bouncing between foster homes while his parents endured a loud, troubled marriage. Eventually reunited with them, Stallone's odd face made him an outcast in school, where he was often suspended for fighting, other behavior problems, and poor grades. His father, a beautician, moved the family to Washington DC, where he opened a beauty school. His mother, a flamboyant woman who has become something of a celebrity in her own right, opened a women's gymnasium in 1952, called Barbella's. They divorced when Stallone was 11, and he was later sent to a special high school for "troubled kids," where he was voted "most likely to end up in the electric chair".

After high school, Stallone coached women's athletics at the American College of Switzerland, and became involved in drama, appearing in a school production of Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman. He returned to America and studied drama at the University of Miami, but dropped out to become a struggling actor in New York. Stallone appeared in an all-nude off-Broadway play called Score, and in 1970 he was paid $200 to appear in a cheap porno feature called The Party at Kitty and Stud's. Years later, after Rocky made Stallone famous, The Party was re-released as The Italian Stallion, with an orgasm-faced Stallone on the video box. In 1971, he had a bit part as a thug in Woody Allen's Bananas. In 1972 he auditioned for a small part in Coppola's The Godfather, but did not get the role, so Stallone decided he might have better luck as a writer.

He wrote the screenplay for the modestly successful The Lords of Flatbush and had a featured role in the film, but was overshadowed by Henry Winkler. Stallone began getting more work in small film roles, but had his greatest success with Rocky in 1976. He wrote the script, and was shrewd enough to sell it with the stipulation that he star as the film's small-time boxer making the big time. Stallone was nominated for two Oscars, for Best Actor and Best Screenplay. He won neither, but Rocky won as Best Picture. Frank Capra said, "I think it's the best picture in the last ten years." He then starred in several Rocky sequels that did well at the box office, and a few that didn't, between other action movies that drew lukewarm audience response. Stallone found a second signature role in 1982, as John Rambo in First Blood, a non-stop action movie about a victimized Vietnam vet who takes out his vengeance on a small town's sadistic sheriff. In the early 1990s Stallone had major hits in Cliffhanger with John Lithgow and Demolition Man with Wesley Snipes, but after that Stallone's star dimmed.

In 1997, he put on forty pounds and took only a minimal salary to star in Cop Land, an independent movie about police corruption. Most of Stallone's recent films, have been artistic and commercial failures. His career reached rock-bottom with D-Tox in 2002, which was filmed on a blockbuster $55 million budget, yet earned less than $55 thousand in its opening weekend. Since 2003, Stallone has been working on Notorious, as co-writer, director, and producer. The film purports to tell the truth about the killings of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., and the Los Angeles Police Department's slipshod investigation (some say cover-up) of the real perpetrators.

With Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he was an original owner of Planet Hollywood, which has brought Stallone at least two lawsuits. In 1996, Stallone was sued by his stepfather, Anthony "Tony" Filiti, who sought $69.8 million in compensatory and punitive damages, for defamation, interference, injurious falsehood, infliction of emotional distress, unfair competition and breach of contract, because Filiti alleged he had been squeezed out of his position as Stallone's "assets manager". Stallone later sued a subsequent financial advisor for urging him to hold his investment in Planet Hollywood. The settlements were not disclosed.

In 1991, Stallone sued the British magazine The Spectator for publishing an article which suggested he had "ducked the Vietnam War". The suit was settled under undisclosed terms. In 1997, Stallone sued Alan and Diane Mehrez, who had produced a film called The Good Life starring Stallone's actor brother Frank Stallone, and featuring Sylvester Stallone in a cameo role. Stallone alleged that the producers were promoting the movie as if he were the star, and demanded that the film never be distributed. In a countersuit, the Mehrezes described the Stallones as "gangsters in actors' clothing". The suits were settled under secret terms, and the movie was never released. Stallone has recently started a new magazine called Sly, targeting men over 40. The magazine immediately brought Stallone another lawsuit, as a different Sly magazine alleges it owns the trademark for the title.

In 1998, after the murder of comic Phil Hartman, Stallone urged the abolition of Americans' right to bear arms. Speaking in London, Stallone said, "Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you're gonna have. It's pathetic. It really is pathetic. It's sad. We're living in the Dark Ages over there." 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.

In 1999, he was sued by five of his former cooks and housecleaners, who alleged they had been searched daily to ascertain that they were not stealing silverware. Some of the plaintiffs said they had been fired for breaking bizarre rules about avoiding eye contact with Stallone and his mother. (Stallone's mother offers "rumpology readings", claiming she can see the future in customers' buttock prints.)

In 2005, Stallone began hosting and producing The Contender, a heavily-hyped boxing show from "reality-TV" king Mark Burnett. It is Stallone's first TV series. After the show's first episodes, 24-year-old contestant Najai Turpin killed himself after losing his bout and being eliminated from the competition. Also in 2005, Stallone was sued by Chuck Wepner, a one-time boxer who claims his 1975 fight against Muhammad Ali was the inspiration for Stallone's Rocky movies. Like Rocky Balboa, Wepner had been given little chance of winning his big fight, but he knocked Ali down in the ninth round, and almost went the distance before being KO'd.

Stallone has won a mantle full of Golden Raspberries. He was named Worst Actor for Rhinestone in 1984, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Rocky V in 1985, Rambo III in 1988, and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot in 1992, and Worst Supporting Actor nod for Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in 2003. He was also named Worst Director for Rocky V in 1985, and has earned Worst Screenplay honors several times.

At the age of 60, Stallone wrote, directed, and starred in his sixth outing as Rocky Balboa, with the battered and wrinkled boxer stepping back into the ring for an exhibition match. After that film drew surprisingly good reviews and box office, he returned to the role of Rambo in 2008.

Father: Frank Stallone, Sr. (hairdresser, d. 11-Jul-2011)
Mother: Jackie Stallone (astrologer, b. 29-Nov-1921)
Brother: Frank Stallone (actor, b. 30-Jul-1950)
Father: Anthony Filiti ("Tony", stepfather, married Stallone's mother)
Sister: Toni Ann Filiti-Schaub (half-sister, daughter of Jackie and Tony Filiti, b. 5-May-1960, d. 26-Aug-2012)
Wife: Sasha Czack (theater usher, m. 28-Dec-1974, div. 1985, two sons)
Son: Sage Stallone (actor/writer, b. 5-May-1976, d. Jul-2012)
Son: Seargeoh (b. 1979, autistic)
Wife: Brigitte Nielsen (m. 15-Dec-1985, div. 1987)
Girlfriend: Angie Everhart (model, engaged Apr-1995, broke up Jun-1995)
Girlfriend: Janice Dickinson (model)
Girlfriend: Andrea Wieser (Austrian model)
Wife: Jennifer Flavin (model, m. 1997, three daughters)
Daughter: Sophia (b. 27-Aug-1996)
Daughter: Sistine Rose (b. 27-Jun-1998)
Daughter: Scarlet Rose (b. 25-May-2002)

    High School: Devereaux High School, Philadelphia, PA
    University: American College of Switzerland (dropped out)
    University: University of Miami Florida (dropped out)

    Planet Hollywood almost 3% ownership
    Caribou Club
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 6712 Hollywood Blvd.
    Draft Deferment: Vietnam
    Issued Concealed Carry Permit Culver City, CA (14-Aug-1984)
    Pied Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Jul-1998)
    Issued Concealed Carry Permit Los Angeles County (30-Nov-2004)
    Drug Possession Jintropin (human growth hormone), Australia (2007), pled guilty
    Italian Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Depression, Smoking, Performance-Enhancing Drugs

    TELEVISION
    The Contender Host (2005)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
    The Expendables (3-Aug-2010)
    Rambo (24-Jan-2008)
    Rocky Balboa (20-Dec-2006)
    Rocky IV (27-Nov-1985)
    Staying Alive (15-Jul-1983)
    Rocky III (28-May-1982)
    Rocky II (15-Jun-1979)
    Paradise Alley (22-Sep-1978)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Creed II (14-Nov-2018)
    Escape Plan 2: Hades (13-Jun-2018)
    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (19-Apr-2017)
    Ratchet & Clank (13-Apr-2016) [VOICE]
    Creed (25-Nov-2015)
    The Expendables 3 (4-Aug-2014)
    Grudge Match (16-Dec-2013)
    Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon (7-Sep-2013) · Himself
    Escape Plan (18-Jul-2013)
    Milius (9-Mar-2013) · Himself
    Bullet to the Head (14-Nov-2012)
    The Expendables 2 (8-Aug-2012)
    Zookeeper (6-Jul-2011) · Joe the Lion [VOICE]
    The Expendables (3-Aug-2010) · Barney Ross
    Kambakkht Ishq (3-Jul-2009) · Himself
    Rambo (24-Jan-2008)
    Rocky Balboa (20-Dec-2006)
    Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (25-Jul-2003) · Toymaker
    Shade (21-Jun-2003) · Stevens
    Avenging Angelo (30-Aug-2002)
    D-Tox (4-Jan-2002) · Malloy
    America: A Tribute to Heroes (21-Sep-2001) · Himself
    Driven (16-Apr-2001)
    Get Carter (4-Oct-2000) · Jack Carter
    Antz (19-Sep-1998) · Weaver [VOICE]
    An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (29-Sep-1997) · Himself
    Cop Land (15-Aug-1997) · Freddy Heflin
    Daylight (6-Dec-1996) · Kit Latura
    Assassins (6-Oct-1995) · Robert Rath
    Judge Dredd (30-Jun-1995) · Judge Dredd
    The Specialist (7-Oct-1994) · Ray Quick
    Demolition Man (8-Oct-1993) · John Spartan
    Cliffhanger (28-May-1993) · Gabe Walker
    Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (21-Feb-1992) · Joe Bomowski
    Oscar (26-Apr-1991) · Angelo "Snaps" Provolone
    Rocky V (16-Nov-1990) · Rocky
    Tango & Cash (22-Dec-1989) · Tango
    Lock Up (4-Aug-1989)
    Rambo III (25-May-1988) · Rambo
    Over the Top (13-Feb-1987) · Lincoln Hawk
    Cobra (23-May-1986) · Marion Cobretti
    Rocky IV (27-Nov-1985) · Rocky Balboa
    Rambo: First Blood Part II (24-May-1985) · Rambo
    Rhinestone (22-Jun-1984) · Nick
    Rambo: First Blood (31-Oct-1982) · Rambo
    Rocky III (28-May-1982) · Rocky Balboa
    Victory (30-Jul-1981)
    Nighthawks (4-Apr-1981) · Deke DaSilva
    Rocky II (15-Jun-1979) · Rocky Balboa
    Paradise Alley (22-Sep-1978) · Cosmo Carboni
    F.I.S.T. (13-Apr-1978)
    Rocky (21-Nov-1976) · Rocky
    The Party at Kitty and Stud's (6-Jul-1976)
    Farewell, My Lovely (8-Aug-1975)
    Death Race 2000 (27-Apr-1975) · Machine Gun Joe Viterbo
    Capone (Apr-1975)
    The Prisoner of Second Avenue (14-Mar-1975)
    The Lords of Flatbush (1-May-1974) · Stanley Rosiello
    No Place to Hide (22-Dec-1970)

Official Website:
http://www.sylvesterstallone.com/


New!
NNDB MAPPER
Create a map starting with Sylvester Stallone
Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.

Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile



Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications