Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone

Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone or known with his nickname as Sly Stallone was born on July 6, 1946 in New York City. Stallone is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Stallone is the son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and Jackie Stallone (née Labofish), an astrologer, former dancer and promoter of women's wrestling.

Between the ages of two and five Stallone was boarded in Queens, seeing his parents only on weekends. In 1951 he returned to live with his parents in Maryland where they operated a chain of beauty salons.

In 1961 he was enrolled in Devereux Manor High School, a private school for problem children located in Berwyn, Pennsylvania and following graduation enrolled in a beauty school. In the 1960s, Stallone dropped out of the beauty school after winning a scholarship for the American College of Switzerland in Leysin where he studied drama and was well received in school productions.

Returning to America he enrolled in the Theater Arts Department at University of Miami for three years. He came within a few credit hours of graduation before he decided to drop out and pursue a career writing screenplays under the pseudonyms Q. Moonblood and J.J. Deadlock while at the same time taking bit parts in movies.

One of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s to the 1990s, Stallone is an icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism. He has played two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon: Rocky Balboa, the boxer who overcame all odds to fight for love and glory, and John Rambo, a courageous soldier who specialized in very violent rescue and revenge missions.

During the 1980s, he enjoyed phenomenal popularity and was one of the biggest movie stars in the world with the Rocky and Rambo franchises. Stallone's culturally influential films changed pop culture history and he has largely enjoyed a career on the Hollywood A list for over 30 years.

Stallone's use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. His popularity in Philadelphia has led to a statue of his Rocky character being placed permanently near the museum as a cultural landmark. Stallone's film Rocky has also been inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum as a national treasure.

He is part of the generation of movie action hero actors (including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal) who were featured in many of the Hollywood blockbuster action films of the late 1980s and 1990s.