Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (photo ©Michael Schilling) was born on July 6, 1946, in New York City, New York, USA.

During his teen years, Sylvester Stallone suffered from various physical problems, but by practicing various sports, he got a scholarship to study at the American College in Switzerland. It was there that he started acting in stage plays and then started studying drama at the University of Miami.

The early years of Sylvester Stallone’s career were very difficult, and sometimes he wrote screenplays to earn some money. In 1970, he appeared for the first time in a movie, but it was soft-core porn; he accepted to be the protagonist to earn some money because he was left with no alternatives.

Slowly, Sylvester Stallone managed to get roles in respectable movies, even high-level ones. Initially, those were small roles such as in “Klute” and “Bananas,” but in 1974, he was among the protagonists of “The Lords of Flatbush”. Other small roles followed, also guest-starring in episodes of TV shows.

The big breakthrough came with the 1976 movie “Rocky”. Sylvester Stallone wrote the script but wanted to play the protagonist, so he refused a $350,000 offer by producers who wanted to use other actors, even if he needed the money. Eventually, Stallone managed to produce the movies the way he wanted, and the result was that it won the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing, in addition to the Golden Globe for Best Drama and a number of other awards.

Thanks to the fame he earned, Sylvester Stallone played the protagonist of “F.I.S.T.” (1978), but he could also produce and direct the movie “Paradise Alley”, based on a novel written by himself.

In 1979, the first sequel of his first big hit was released, “Rocky II”, of which Sylvester Stallone was also the director. In 1981, came “Nighthawks” and “Victory”.

In 1982, another sequel arrived, “Rocky III”, for which Stallone was also a screenwriter and director. In the same year, he began the other series of movies for which the actor is famous with “First Blood”.

Sylvester Stallone kept on mixing genres and tasks: in 1983 came “Staying Alive”, of which he was author, director, and producer, while in 1984 he tried comedy with “Rhinestone”, of which he was the protagonist and screenwriter.

In 1985, two more sequels came out with “Rocky IV” and “Rambo: First Blood Part II”. He starred in more and more action movies such as “Cobra” in 1986, of which he was also a screenwriter, “Rambo III” (1988), of which he was also a screenwriter, “Tango & Cash” (1989), and “Lock Up” (1989).

After “Rocky V” in 1990, Sylvester Stallone tried more comedic roles, as in”Oscar” (1991) and “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot” (1992), but without great success. He returned to action roles, also as science fiction in “Demolition Man” (1993) and “Judge Dredd” (1995).

In subsequent years, Sylvester Stallone seemed to have lost his popularity, with the consequence that his movies didn’t have great success. He tried to fix that by returning to his most famous characters with “Rocky Balboa” (2006) and “Rambo” (2008). He was also a screenwriter and director of both movies.

These new successes revived Sylvester Stallone’s fame, helping to promote his recent movies such as “The Expendables” (2010), of which he was also director, and its sequels, “The Expendables 2” (2012) and “The Expendables 2” (2014). He was also the screenwriter for all three movies. In 2015, another chapter of Rocky’s saga came out with “Creed”, of which Stallone was also a producer.

Sylvester Stallone still has a number of projects in various stages of production because he keeps on working. He stated that his career is made up mostly of failures with a small percentage of successes. He worked hard to get those successes, proving that one must believe in their own projects. The characters of Rocky Balboa and John Rambo have already become cinema icons.