Sylvester Stallone
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (born July 6, 1946), nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. 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.
