As a boy growing up in the 80’s I loved everything Stallone touched. I had the guns, the bandana, I even had the green necklace! I find out 30 years later, Sylvester Stallone wasn’t happy about children all over the world being able to emulate Rambo with toys based off the movie!
I remember sitting in the movie theater with my dad and brother as the helicopter slowly flies into a stand off with Rambo! Then Rambo takes his shot with the shoulder mounter rocket launcher! Man, those were the days.
Enjoy, 10 Weird Facts About Sylvester Stallone!
1. Sylvester Stallone was Born With a Paralyzed Lip, Chin & Tongue!
When Stallone was born on July 6, 1946 in Manhattan, the physician used a pair of forceps to deliver him.
The horrendous doctor left his lip, chin, and part of his tongue partially paralyzed due to a severed nerve.
2. As a child Stallone was given The Nickname Sylvia!
Sylvester Stallone would later say his face and awkward demeanor earned him the nickname “Sylvia”. Worst of all were the authority figures in his life telling him his brain was “dormant.”
3. Against all odds, Sylvester Stallone attended college in Switzerland.
Despite a rough adolescence in which he was kicked out of several schools for misbehavior, Stallone graduated high school while living with his mother in Philadelphia.
He would go on to attend American College, a university in Leysin, Switzerland, where he also worked as a gym teacher and dorm bouncer in addition to selling hamburgers on campus.
4. Ran into Bad Luck as an Usher at a Movie Theater!
Back in the United States he began auditioning for acting roles. To pay the bills, Stallone worked as a movie theater usher and cleaned lion cages at the zoo. He was fired from the theater for scalping tickets to a customer, who turned out to be the theater owner.
5. His Mother believed she could predict someones future by looking at their butt!
Sylvester Stallone’s mother, Jackie Stallone, whom he once described as “half-French, half-Martian”, picked up an unusual interest. Rumpology or the study of the buttocks to reveal personality traits and future events.
6. Sylvester Stallone was in a porno!
If you know anything about Stallone you probably know this but I had to include it. While struggling to make it as an actor, Stallone was talked into making an appearance in Party at Kitty and Stud’s, a 1970 softcore adult film that was not as explicit as other sex features of the era but still required Stallone to appear in the nude.
While he was hesitant to take the role, Stallone was sleeping in a bus shelter at the time. He gladly took the $200 for two days of work.
7. The Porno and all Rights to it were auctioned on Ebay!
After the success of Rocky in 1976, the porno film’s producers capitalized on their now-valuable footage and re-released it under the title The Italian Stallion.
In 2010, a 35mm negative of the film and all worldwide rights to it were auctioned off on eBay for $412,100.
8. Sylvester Stallone Hated the cartoons and the Toys based off of the Rambo Movies!
Following the success of 1982’s First Blood and 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part 2, Stallone was confronted with a litany of Rambo merchandising opportunities.
Speaking with the Chicago Tribune in 1986, he said he disliked that the psychologically-tortured war veteran was being used to peddle toys.
“I couldn’t control it,” he said. “I tried to stop it, but I don’t own the licensing rights.”
9. Stallone was Offered the Lead in Beverly Hills Cop & Even Rewrote the script!
Stallone was originally offered the role of Axel Foley in 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. He wasn’t looking to make a comedy, so Stallone rewrote the entire script to focus more on action, as Detroit cop Foley stampedes through Beverly Hills to find his friend’s killers.
Stallone described his version as resembling “the opening scene from Saving Private Ryan on the beaches of Normandy” and said the climax involved a game of chicken between a Lamborghini and an oncoming train.
Producers opted to go in another direction and it became one of Eddie Murphy’s biggest hits. Stallone would later use some of his ideas for Beverly Hills Cop in another cop movie in 1986 in the film Cobra.
10. Sylvester Stallone Hates Richard Gere, or at least he used to!
While filming 1974’s The Lords of Flatbush, a film that finds Stallone and then-unknown actor Richard Gere playing 1950s street thugs, the two actors apparently got off on the wrong foot.
Stallone said Gere pissed him off for being too physical during rehearsals, and worse, getting mustard on Stallone during a lunch break.
The mustard was the final straw, Stallone demanded the director choose one of them to stay and one of them to be fired. Gere was let go and replaced by Perry King.
Bonus Fact: Stallone thinks Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked him into starring in “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot”
Stallone has discussed his rivalry with Arnold Schwarzenegger often, the two action stars were the two biggest names in Hollywood during in the 1980s.
Recalling his 1992 bomb “Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot”, Stallone told a journalist in 2014 that he believed Schwarzenegger was to blame.
“I heard Arnold wanted to do that movie and after hearing that, I said I wanted to do it,” he said. “He tricked me. He’s always been clever.”
Well, did you learn anything new about Sylvester Stallone? I definitely did while researching this and hopefully you did as well.
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