Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone[Stallone proves there’s no show without punch, The Herald, January 29, 2007] (born July 6, 1946), nicknamed
Sly Stallone,
[Sly Stallone] is an American actor,
director,
producer and
screenwriter. One of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s to the 1990s, Stallone is an icon of
machismo and
Hollywood action heroism. He has played two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon:
Rocky Balboa, the boxer who overcame odds to fight for love and glory, and
John Rambo, a courageous soldier who specialized in violent rescue and revenge missions. During the 1980s and the better part of 1990s, he was one of the biggest movie stars in the world with the
Rocky and
Rambo franchises along with several other mega blockbuster hit films.
Stallone's film
Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film 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 Rocky character placed permanently near the museum, on the right side before the steps.
Early life
Stallone was born in
New York City,
[Sylvesterstallone.com .:: the official website ::. Biography] the son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and
Jackie Stallone (born Labofish), an
astrologer, former dancer and promoter of women's
wrestling. He is the brother of actor and musician
Frank Stallone. Stallone's father was the son of an
Italian immigrant from
Gioia del Colle, in the
province of Bari (
Apulia,
Italy)
[Video of Stallone visiting Italy], while Stallone's mother was born in
Washington, D.C. of
French (from
Brest in
Brittany) and
Russian
Jewish descent.
[Stated on Inside the Actors Studio, 1999][fr "Cinéma. Stallone est de Brest « même » !", Le Télégramme de Brest, 6 october 2009]
