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Biography page
The son of an Italian emigrant ,Sylvester
Stallone was born in 1946. His upbringing was far removed from the happily-ever-after world of his Hollywood films.
He spent the first five years of his life in New York’s notorious Hell’s Kitchen. A product of an
unstable marriage, he went from one foster home to another until his mother finally divorced, moving both Stallone and his
younger brother to Philadelphia to live with their newly acquired stepfather.
Sly went to a multitude of schools at that time. He was asked to leave many schools until he
ended up in a special school called Devereaux."I tended to be much more drawn to the arts. I enjoyed painting and drawing
a lot more than dealing in absolutes such as geometry and whatever. Which didn't sit very well at that time". At that school, he
was introduced to athletics and got very attracted to it. Sly focused on the physical aspects of his life. Later
he managed to get into the American College of Switzerland, where he stayed for a year in Leysin, Switzerland.
Stallone went on to study drama at the university of Miami. However the call of the bright lights proved too strong,
and just three credits short of graduating, Stallone headed for the Big Apple, to pursue his dream. The logic behind his baffling
decision only became clear years later, when he was quoted saying: “Once in one’s life, for one mortal moment,
one must make a grab for immortality; if not, one has not lived.”
However, after a good few years in New York, it
started to seem that Stallone might be destined for plain old mortality. Despite acting in a few low-budget movies, and landing
a role in Woody Allen’s Bananas in 1971, his facial features proved to be a hindrance, with rejection after rejection
thrown his way. Not to be deterred, Stallone sat down and started to write. In three days he’d penned the now legendary
Rocky. Stallone’s insistence on playing the underdog lead (the prize fighter Rocky Balboa) discouraged producers, who
wanted to cast a big-name star, from buying the screenplay."They offered
me $265,000 and 5% of the profits," Stallone said. "When I turned it down I had exactly
$106 to my name and my wife was pregnant". Yet Stallone was insistent, even though his bank balance was
barely $100, and his perseverance paid off. Inspired by a fight between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner, Rocky was finally produced
on a tiny budget and went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
All of a sudden Stallone became an Oscar nominated writer and actor and the proud owner of his Best Picture Oscar.
Thirty years later a framed Newsweek photograph of Iraqi children holding up Rocky posters takes pride of place in his Beverly
Hills home. Rocky went on to become a five-part series, while Stallone penned another hit screenplay, which became the 1985
film Rambo.
With an endless list of blockbuster movies to his credit, the actor, writer, director,
producer and businessman was eager to embark on even more exciting new projects. Stallone recently launched Instone LLC, a
nutrition and diet company that fulfils his vision of a holistic product line for complete health and fitness management.
He has also created a new boxing-based reality TV series called The Contender.The actor thinks that one's reputation cannot be buffed enough. "It shows that you are making
an effort and therefore providing an example that we're never going to rest on our laurels. What is resting on your laurels?
It's like a donkey sitting on his haunches. What is that all about? I don't want to rest on my laurels because that means
I've given up, raised the white flag and I've surrendered the fort. I'm not doing that. I think that life is a constant uphill
grind".
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