Sylvester Stallone continued to revisit iconic roles with the release of Rocky Balboa in 2006 and Rambo in 2008. He then launched The Expendables franchise in 2010, portraying the hardened mercenary Barney Ross. In 2013, he starred in the box office hit Escape Plan, later appearing in its sequels. His return to the Rocky universe came again in 2015 with Creed, where a now-retired Rocky Balboa mentors Donnie Creed, the son of his former rival Apollo Creed. This performance earned Stallone widespread acclaim, including his first Golden Globe and a third Academy Award nomination—remarkably for the same character he was first nominated for four decades earlier. Since 2022, Stallone has led the cast of Tulsa King, a crime drama series on Paramount+.
Born on July 6, 1946, in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan, New York City, Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone is the eldest son of Jacqueline “Jackie” Stallone (née Labofish), a promoter in women’s professional wrestling, and Francesco “Frank” Stallone Sr., a hairdresser and immigrant from Gioia del Colle, Italy. His mother, originally from Washington, D.C., had Ukrainian Jewish and Breton French roots. His younger brother, Frank Stallone, also found a career in music and acting.
Many sources note that Stallone’s birth name is Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone. According to his mother, she originally named him “Tyrone” after her favorite actor, Tyrone Power, though his father later changed it to Sylvester. As a child, he was nicknamed “Binky,” but after classmates teased him with the name “Stinky,” he began going by “Mike” or “Michael.” His middle name, “Gardenzio,” is a variation of the Italian name “Gaudenzio,” which he often shortened to “Enzio.”
Stallone’s trademark facial expression and slurred speech stem from complications during birth. Doctors used forceps during delivery, accidentally severing a facial nerve and resulting in partial paralysis on the lower left side of his face, including his lip, tongue, and chin. This unique look would later become a defining feature of his on-screen persona. Bullied during childhood, Stallone turned to fitness and acting as coping mechanisms.
He spent parts of his early years in foster care and returned to live with his family in Maryland at age five. In the early 1950s, his father moved the family to Washington, D.C., where he opened a beauty school. By 1954, Stallone’s mother had established a women’s gym called Barbella’s.
