50 Fun Facts About Sylvester Stallone

What caused the partial facial paralysis behind Sylvester Stallone's trademark snarl and slurred speech?

A forceps injury at birth severed a facial nerve, leaving part of his lip, tongue and chin paralysed. Bullied for it as a boy, he took up bodybuilding and acting to cope.

Sylvester Stallone refused to sell his Rocky script, whatever the offer, unless producers agreed to what?

The producers had to cast him as the star, although the studio had pictured Burt Reynolds or Ryan O'Neal in the part. They gave way only after the budget was cut sharply.

How does the title fight with Apollo Creed end for Stallone's underdog boxer in the original Rocky?

He loses a split decision after lasting the full fifteen rounds, which was all he had hoped to do. As the verdict is read out, he is busy calling for Adrian.

In the American release of Stallone's Demolition Man, which chain alone outlasts the franchise wars?

Taco Bell is the only restaurant left in 2032, so even a formal dinner is held there. Prints sent to Europe swapped in Pizza Hut, a sister brand better known abroad.

Arnold Schwarzenegger says he faked interest in which comedy to trick rival Stallone into starring?

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot struck Schwarzenegger as a dreadful script, so he let it be known he wanted it. Stallone took the part, and Roger Ebert called the result one of the worst films he had seen.

Stallone wrote Rocky soon after watching Chuck Wepner last into round fifteen against which champion?

Muhammad Ali needed until the final round to beat Wepner in a 1975 bout few expected to last. Stallone finished his script within days, and Wepner later sued him and settled.

Stallone was signed to star in which Eddie Murphy hit before quitting and reworking his ideas into Cobra?

Beverly Hills Cop lost Stallone after he stripped out nearly all the jokes and rewrote it as a hard-edged action film. Eddie Murphy took over as Axel Foley, and the rejected ideas resurfaced in Cobra.

While directing which 2010 action ensemble did Sylvester Stallone break his neck in a fight scene?

The Expendables left him needing a metal plate in his neck after a brawl filmed with Steve Austin. Stallone also wrote the film, which opened at number one in the United States.

In Rocky, what does Sylvester Stallone's cash-strapped boxer use as punching bags while training?

Sides of beef hang in the meat-packing plant where his friend Paulie works. Former champion Joe Frazier later claimed the scene was lifted, uncredited, from his own real-life training.

Which Swedish actor made his American film debut as Ivan Drago, Stallone's opponent in Rocky IV?

Dolph Lundgren traded real punches with Stallone for the fight scenes, and Stallone says one blow put him in intensive care. Lundgren returned as Drago 33 years later in Creed II.

Sylvester Stallone's run in Rocky made a landmark of the 72 steps outside the art museum in which city?

Philadelphia now knows them as the Rocky Steps. Stallone first wanted his boxer to carry the dog Butkus to the top, but the big bullmastiff proved too heavy for the scene.

Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo is a former Green Beret haunted by his service in which conflict?

The Vietnam War left Rambo with flashbacks of torture, which rough handling by small-town police sets off in First Blood. He had come looking for an army friend, only to learn the man had died.

Which ring nickname leads Apollo Creed to pick Sylvester Stallone's unknown boxer as his opponent in Rocky?

The Italian Stallion strikes the champion as a name that will sell tickets. He needs a replacement opponent in a hurry, because his scheduled challenger has pulled out with an injured hand.

Who played Stallone's fearsome challenger Clubber Lang in Rocky III?

Mr. T was spotted by Stallone on a televised contest to find America's toughest bouncer. Rocky III made him a star, and his role in The A-Team soon followed.

Which WWE Hall of Famer, inducted by Sylvester Stallone himself in 2005, played the towering Thunderlips in Rocky III?

Hulk Hogan got the part after Terry Funk, who did stunts on the film, recommended him to Stallone. His character is billed as a world champion and meets Rocky in a charity exhibition.

Sylvester Stallone lost both of his own nominations at the 1977 Oscars, but Rocky still won which award?

Best Picture was one of three wins from ten nominations, along with directing and film editing. Stallone had been nominated for both acting and writing, a double very few had managed.

Which country star bets she can turn Sylvester Stallone's New York cab driver into a singer in Rhinestone?

Dolly Parton plays a club singer who wagers her contract that she can make anyone a country sensation in two weeks. The film flopped, yet it gave Parton two top-ten country hits.

Which Raging Bull star climbed into the ring against Sylvester Stallone in the 2013 comedy Grudge Match?

Robert De Niro and Stallone play ageing Pittsburgh rivals lured back for one last bout, a wink at their famous boxing roles. The rematch is arranged after footage of them brawling at a video-game studio goes viral.

Which actor plays Adonis, the son of Apollo Creed trained by Sylvester Stallone's ageing Rocky in the film Creed?

Michael B. Jordan plays a young fighter born of the late champion's extramarital affair, who seeks out his father's old rival. Stallone's supporting turn won him a Golden Globe.

In which Taylor Sheridan crime series does Sylvester Stallone play Dwight Manfredi, a New York mafia capo sent west?

Tulsa King packs his character off to Oklahoma after 25 years in prison, where he builds a new crew from nothing. The show marked Stallone's streaming television debut.

In Over the Top, Sylvester Stallone's trucker Lincoln Hawk chases a Las Vegas world title in which sport?

Arm wrestling earns him extra cash on the road, and he hopes the prize money will start his own trucking firm. Several real world champions of the sport appear in cameo roles.

Which actor played Gabe Cash, the rival detective framed alongside Sylvester Stallone's character in Tango & Cash?

Kurt Russell stepped in after Patrick Swayze dropped out to make Road House. His detective is the opposite of Stallone's Ray Tango, a refined officer in Armani suits who trades stocks on the side.

Which Brazilian soccer legend acted beside Sylvester Stallone in Escape to Victory and designed its match plays?

Pelé broke Stallone's finger with a penalty kick that the actor tried to block during filming. England's World Cup winner Gordon Banks coached Stallone for his scenes between the posts.

Which themed restaurant chain did Sylvester Stallone help launch in 1991 with Bruce Willis and Demi Moore?

Planet Hollywood paid its celebrity backers in company stock for turning up and endorsing the brand. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined them, but the chain filed for bankruptcy in 1999.

In Rambo III, Sylvester Stallone's hero sets out to free Colonel Trautman from Soviet forces in which country?

Afghanistan was then under Soviet occupation, and Rambo rides with Mujahideen fighters to reach his old commander. The film ends with a dedication to the country's gallant people.

Which actor played Simon Phoenix, the thawed-out crime lord hunted by Sylvester Stallone's cop in Demolition Man?

Wesley Snipes plays a criminal frozen in 1996 who escapes at a parole hearing in 2032. The peaceful city of San Angeles has to parole Stallone's equally frozen cop to hunt him down.

Which actress, cast as Ivan Drago's wife in Rocky IV, married Sylvester Stallone shortly after its release?

Brigitte Nielsen was engaged to Stallone during production and starred beside him again in Cobra the following year. The marriage lasted two years and ended in a much-publicised divorce.

Which band wrote Eye of the Tiger for Rocky III after Queen refused Sylvester Stallone another song?

Survivor matched the song's riff to the punches in the boxing scenes and took its title from a line in the film. It reached number one in many countries and earned an Oscar nomination.

Where does the shy Adrian work when Sylvester Stallone's boxer first courts her in the original Rocky?

A pet shop called J&M Tropical Fish employs her part-time. Her brother Paulie, the boxer's closest friend, eventually sets the pair up on a date.

Which former NFL linebacker played Apollo Creed opposite Sylvester Stallone in the first four Rocky films?

Carl Weathers won the part after criticising Stallone's acting at their audition. Boxer Ken Norton had been wanted first but pulled out, so the role went to a man with two Oakland Raiders seasons behind him.

Which sister of director Francis Ford Coppola played Adrian opposite Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky films?

Talia Shire landed the part late in casting, after first choice Carrie Snodgress left in a dispute over money. Her performance as Adrian earned an Academy Award nomination.

Which ever-hungry member of the team did Sylvester Stallone voice in the 2021 DC film The Suicide Squad?

King Shark is a man-eating hybrid created with visual effects, so Stallone supplied only the voice. Actor Steve Agee played the part on set during filming.

For which 1997 crime drama with Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta did Sylvester Stallone gain 40 pounds?

Cop Land cast him against type as a partly deaf New Jersey sheriff who finally confronts the corrupt city officers living in his town. The role won him an acting prize at the Stockholm film festival.

A struggling Sylvester Stallone tried and failed to be hired as an extra on which crime classic?

The Godfather turned him away even as a background face, which he later called a low point. He settled for a barely visible spot in What's Up, Doc? and came close to giving up acting.

Which John Travolta film did Sylvester Stallone direct in 1983, the one film he directed without starring in it?

Staying Alive was a sequel to Saturday Night Fever that critics panned and audiences paid to see anyway. Stallone's brother Frank scored a top-ten hit with a song from its soundtrack.

Sylvester Stallone's high school classmates once voted him the pupil most likely to end up where?

In the electric chair was the verdict on a boy who passed through a string of schools. A guidance counsellor was barely kinder, telling his mother he was suited to running a sorting machine.

In the novel First Blood, unlike the Sylvester Stallone film, what finally happens to John Rambo?

He is killed in the book, shot by Trautman, who ran the school that trained him, and the film-makers shot a matching ending. After a hostile test screening, the producers used back-up footage in which he lives.

Which blockbuster director shares the screenplay credit with Stallone on Rambo: First Blood Part II?

James Cameron wrote the first draft while he was also working on Aliens. Stallone then took over the script and produced the final version himself.

Sylvester Stallone urged the White House to grant a 2018 posthumous pardon to which early heavyweight champion?

Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion, was pardoned 105 years after his conviction, with Stallone among the guests at the ceremony. An earlier attempt had stalled in the Senate.

Stallone's 1977 Oscar nominations for acting in and writing Rocky matched a double by Orson Welles and which comic?

Charlie Chaplin and Welles were the only men before him nominated for both acting in and writing the same film. Stallone lost on both counts, although Rocky itself won three Oscars.

Which author's 1972 debut novel First Blood introduced John Rambo a decade before Stallone played him?

David Morrell watched his book pass between studios for ten years before it was filmed. He called it ironic that a knife magazine later gave him an award, since Rambo's famous blade was Stallone's idea.

Which Hollywood veteran was cast as Colonel Trautman in Stallone's First Blood but left after reaching the set?

Kirk Douglas reported to the British Columbia location in the third week of filming but did not stay. Director Ted Kotcheff phoned Richard Crenna over a weekend to take the part at the last minute.

Which European mountain range doubled for the Colorado Rockies in Sylvester Stallone's 1993 thriller Cliffhanger?

The Dolomites around Cortina d'Ampezzo supplied most of the film's scenery, with the climbing shot mainly on the Tofane cliffs. Stallone co-wrote the script and played a mountain rescue ranger.

Homeless before his first film role, Sylvester Stallone says he slept for three weeks in which New York building?

Port Authority Bus Terminal became his shelter after he was evicted from his apartment. He then spotted a casting notice for a low-budget film that paid him $200 for two days' work.

In which 1975 Roger Corman cult film does Sylvester Stallone play gangster driver Machine Gun Joe Viterbo?

Death Race 2000 sets his Chicago gangster against the black-garbed champion Frankenstein in a murderous road contest. Corman hired Stallone after seeing him in The Lords of Flatbush.

Sylvester Stallone appears uncredited as a subway thug in which 1971 Woody Allen comedy?

Bananas gave him a fleeting part as a hoodlum on a train, long before anyone knew his name. He took similar unbilled walk-ons in Klute and M*A*S*H at around the same time.

Which real heavyweight boxer played the protégé who turns on Stallone's retired champion in Rocky V?

Tommy Morrison was cast after Stallone watched one of his bouts and arranged a script reading. Three years after the film he outpointed George Foreman to win a world heavyweight title.

Which Dutch actor made his American debut as the terrorist hunted by Sylvester Stallone's detective in Nighthawks?

Rutger Hauer plays Wulfgar, a terrorist-for-hire who reaches New York after bombing a London department store. Stallone prepared by spending weeks of night shifts with a real police street-crimes unit.

Before studying drama at the University of Miami, Sylvester Stallone spent two years at a college in which country?

Switzerland was his home from 1965 to 1967, when he attended the American College of Switzerland. He left Miami without graduating, but the university granted him a fine arts degree in 1998.

Which director won an Oscar for Rocky and returned for Rocky V after Sylvester Stallone had directed three sequels?

John G. Avildsen was replaced by Stallone himself on Rocky II and went on to direct another underdog favourite, The Karate Kid. His return for the fifth film was meant to close the series.