He can boast of being one of the few creators of three successful film sagas: Rocky, Rambo and The mercenariesin which, according to him, he wanted to show normal people who perform heroic acts.
Friend of US President Donald Trump, whom he considers a “second George Washington”, he reaches eight decades old with physical consequences from his stunts and multiple operations, including some cosmetic ones.
Paralysis of the face at birth
On July 6, 1946, Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone was born in New York, a baby whose birth complications and misuse of forceps accidentally severed a nerve, paralyzing the lower left part of his face. That circumstance, which caused him to suffer ridicule and bullying, would, however, become a particular way of speaking and smiling that would triumph on the big screen.
His parents – an Italian immigrant, Frank, a hairdresser by profession, and Jackie, a dancer, circus trapeze artist and astrologer – and the continuous fights between them led him to go through shelters, while his rebellion caused him to be expelled from several schools. He was even chosen at school as the “most likely to end up in the electric chair.”
“I didn’t have a perfect childhood, but I also think I wouldn’t be here with a perfect childhood,” he recalled years later in an interview with the magazine GQ.
At a boarding school in Switzerland in the mid-1960s, he discovered his acting skills, which combined with his passion for sport.
Upon his return to the United States, he studied acting at the University of Miami between 1967 and 1969. He participated in theater productions, although it was not until 1998 when the center awarded him a degree in Fine Arts, in recognition of his career.
From sleeping in a bus terminal to the Oscars
Stallone’s first film was The Party at Kitty and Stud’s (1970), an erotic film that he accepted for money, since at that time he slept in a bus terminal in New York.
He worked as a theater usher and cleaner at a zoo while landing minor roles or receiving refusals to participate as an extra in The godfather.
But in 1976 its history changed thanks to Rocky. It is said that he wrote the script in just three days, after watching a fight between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. Convinced of the story’s potential, he demanded to star in it as a condition of selling the script. The film was produced by Chartoff-Winkler Productions and filmed in Philadelphia.
The film about boxer Rocky Balboa, directed by John G. Avildsen, earned ten Oscar nominations. Stallone was nominated for best actor and best original screenplay, while the film won awards for best film, best direction and best editing.
Who hasn’t wanted to imitate his running up those stairs? The scene was filmed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its staircase became known as Rocky Steps. The steps It is also the name of his biography, published in 2025. To date, nine films have developed Rocky’s story.
Obsession with muscles
The actor has demonstrated a muscular physique since he prepared for Rocky in the 1970s. He kept it up through the 1980s and 1990s with other physically demanding roles, from Vietnam War veteran John Rambo to characters Marion Cobretti, in Cobra; John Spartan, in Demolition Man; and Barney Ross, in The mercenaries.
Discipline, endless hours in the gym and treatments with growth hormones have been part of his routine. On occasions he has even had problems at airports for transporting banned steroids in his luggage.
Despite his age, he continues to train every day to maintain his physical condition and, as he wrote a few months ago on Instagram: “every year it gets harder and harder, but that’s why you have to try harder and harder. Blood, sweat and tears.”
Catholic and father of five children
Beyond cinema, Stallone is fond of painting and has exhibited his works, for example, in the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. As a businessman, he also promoted several businesses, including the now-defunct Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, along with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
A friend of Trump, the president named him, along with Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, a “special ambassador to Hollywood” in 2025 and presented him with an award from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Catholic, he was received in a private audience at the Vatican by Pope Francis in 2023, accompanied by his wife Jennifer and his daughters Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet. With them he also starred in the docuseries The Stallone Family.
The actor was previously married to Sasha Czack, mother of his children Sage – who died at the age of 36 – and Seargeoh, who has autism, and to Brigitte Nielsen.