Sylvester Stallone Turns 70: Here’s What You Don’t Know About The Legend They Call Rocky, Rambo, And Sly


Sylvester Stallone turns 70 today, and although the man they call Sly has never been hailed as a theatrical type of thespian, as an action hero who specializes in playing underdogs with a whole lot of heart and a bucketful of guts, he’s pretty untouchable.

Cut from an old-fashioned cloth and hewn from a harder rock, Stallone is a dying breed of actor who exudes two things on the big screen which have made his name and won him worldwide recognition — presence and charisma.

Stallone’s way with words may be economical, but when it comes to conveying an emotion or a feeling through facial expressions alone, he’s an old master. As the expandable one once said, “You’ve got to show your soul otherwise you’re just a piece of equipment.”

In celebration of the man who made Rocky and Rambo household names, let’s take a sly peek behind the curtain at what you didn’t know about one of the last great action heroes of our age.

(Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images)

Although Rocky Balboa is one of Sly Stone’s most famous creations, in real life Stallone was a polo player before he wooed audiences as a brawler on the mean streets of Philly. Loved by the British royal family, Polo is regarded as a pastime of the posh, and that was apparently one of the reasons why Sylvester Stallone’s dad, who was onto a solid earner with his hair salon business, wanted his son to take up the horse-bound sport. Needless to say, it didn’t last.

Sly didn’t just get to box in the movies – he once “fought” with none other than Muhammad Ali. The story goes that at the 1976 Oscars, Stallone went on stage to present the Best Supporting Actress nomination, only to be ambushed by “the greatest,” who staged an entertaining play fight with the Italian Stallion. In trademark style, Ali also said, “You stole my script, all of that was me, I’m Apollo Creed.”

The Rocky franchise has gone on to earn Stallone millions of dollars worldwide, which isn’t bad considering Sly, who was broke at the time, wrote the iconic first movie in just three days and 20 hours. Despite his wife being pregnant and only having a measly $100 to his name, Stallone turned down the offer of $350,000 for the script without him starring and took a much cheaper deal just so he could play the role of the fighter who captured the heart of audiences everywhere.

(Photo by MJ Kim/Getty Images)

Anyone familiar with the first two Rocky films will know and love Balboa’s pet dog Butkus. The faithful hound was in fact Sly’s dog in real life, but he sold him prior to making the first Rocky film just so he could feed his family. Six months later, Stallone had a little more money in his pocket and asked for Butkus back because he wanted him as a co-star.

Even as a young boy, Stallone was obsessed with heroes, particularly superheroes. He would wear a costume under his school clothes and once, believing he could fly, Sly jumped out of a window. It ended badly with a trip to the hospital and a broken collarbone, but as Stallone would say in later life, “I know I’m incredibly unpredictable, and that’s the only thing I’m sure of.”

Of course, heroic ideals and a commitment to marching to the beat of a different drum didn’t make things easy for Stallone in his formative years. He was always getting into trouble, and his love of fighting, arson, and stealing nuns’ crucifixes saw him expelled from 14 different Catholic schools. All of which resulted in the Sly one being packed off to a boarding school in Switzerland. Perhaps inspiring Stallone to later comment, “Jesus is the inspiration for anyone to go the distance.”

Expelled from 14 different school, didn’t prevent Stallone from yearning to do great things with his life. In 1988, Rambo III broke the Guinness World Record for most violent movie ever, with 221 acts of bloodthirsty violence and 108 deaths. In 2008, Sly would go one better with the film, Rambo, which went all out and delivered 2.5 deaths every minute. Yet Sly has defended such crazy stats with the rationale that, “Rambo isn’t violent. I see Rambo as a philanthropist.”

Although nominated for an Oscar three times, Stallone has always just missed out, but he has won four worst actor awards and a Worst Actor of the Century Award at the Golden Raspberries, where he takes pride of place as being the most nominated star ever. What can you say? Everyone hates a winner! Brushing such insults off, Sly has said, “I think I’m a much better painter than an actor.”

Without his trademark look, slurred speech, and ashtray eyes, Stallone wouldn’t be the actor he is, but it was only through a problem at birth that Sly was able to exploit these things to his advantage. When he was born on July 6, 1946, a medical intern used two pairs of forceps to bring the baby Stallone into this world and accidentally severed the facial nerves in Sly’s lips and one of his eyelids.

Stallone takes a philosophical attitude towards his appearance and has remarked, “I’m not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the teeth aren’t straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works.”

So there we have it, there’s nothing much else to say, except, have a happy birthday champ!

(Photo by Patrick Riviere/Getty Images)

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for The Critics’ Choice Awards)

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