Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (born July 6, 1946) is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Critics’ Choice Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA Awards. He is one of only two actors in history (alongside Harrison Ford) to have starred in a No. 1 box-office film across six consecutive decades.
He began as a struggling actor for a number of years in New York City and later Hollywood, having uncredited roles in such films as Michael Ritchie’s Downhill Racer (1969), with Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and Camilla Sparv; Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H (1970), with Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt, Elliott Gould, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, René Auberjonois, Gary Burghoff, Roger Bowen, Michael Murphy; Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), with Richard S. Castellano, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy, Marian Hailey, Joseph Hindy, and Diane Keaton; The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (1970), with Jordan Christopher, Jill O’Hara, Robert Walden, Kate Reid, William Redfield and Lois Nettleton; Bananas (1971), with Woody Allen (who also directed), Louise Lasser, and Carlos Montalbán; Alan J. Pakula’s Klute (1971), with Jane Fonda, Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Nathan George, Dorothy Tristan, Roy Scheider and Rita Gam; Peter Bogdanovich’s What’s Up Doc? (1972), with Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, Sorrell Booke, Michael Murphy, and Madeline Kahn; Richard Fleischer’s Mandingo (1975), with James Mason, Susan George, Perry King, Richard Ward, Brenda Sykes, and Ken Norton; and an uncredited cameo in Paul Bartel’s Cannonball (1976), with David Carradine, Bill McKinney, Veronica Hamel, Belinda Balaski, and Archie Hahn.
Early credited roles include The Lords of Flatbush (1974), with King, Henry Winkler, Paul Mace, and Susan Blakely; The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), with Jack Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, Gene Saks, and F. Murray Abraham; the Roger Corman produced Capone (1975), with Ben Gazzara, Harry Guardino, Susan Blakely, and John Cassavetes; Death Race 2000 (1975), with Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Mary Woronov, Martin Kove, and Don Steele; and Farewell My Lovely (1975), with Robert Mitchum, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, Sylvia Miles, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Spinell, Jack O’Halloran.
His major breakout came when he wrote in starred as down on his luck boxer Rocky Balboa in the romantic sports drama Rocky (1976), with Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Tony Burton, and Burgess Meredith – for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay. He would play the character in 5 mainline films (writing all of them and directing 4 of them), collectively featuring much of the cast from the first films along with Mr. T, Brigitte Nielsen (married from 1995 to 1987), Dolph Lundgren, Sage Stallone, Tommy Morrison, Richard Grant, Antonio Tarver, Milo Ventimiglia, and Geraldine Hughes.
He would also play Balboa in Ryan Coogler’s spinoff film Creed (2015), with Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Tony Bellew, and Graham McTavish – for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; and the first sequel Creed II (2017), with Jordan, Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Rashad, and Lundgren.
He also co-wrote and starred in Norman Jewison’s F.I.S.T. (1978), with Rod Steiger,
Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman, Kevin Conway, and Tony Lo Bianco; and made his directorial debut on Paradise Alley (1978), with Conway, Anne Archer, Spinell, Armand Assante, Lee Canalito, Frank McRae, Joyce Ingalls, and Tom Waits. He also co-wrote and directed the Saturday Night Fever sequel Staying Alive (1983), with John Travolta, Cynthia Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Joyce Hyser, Julie Bovasso, Viktor Manoel, and Kevyn Morrow.
In the early 1980s he co-wrote and starred as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo in Ted Kotcheff’s First Blood (1982), with Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, Bill McKinney, and David Caruso. He would co-write and star in the 4 sequels Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), with Crenna, Charles Napier, Julia Nickson, and Steven Berkoff; Rambo III (1988), with Crenna, Kurtwood Smith, Marc de Jonge, and Sasson Gabai; Rambo (2008), Julie Benz, Paul Schulze, Matthew Marsden, McTavish, Rey Gallegos, Tim Kang, Jake La Botz, Maung Maung Khin, and Ken Howard – this entry he also directed: and Rambo: Last Blood (2019), with Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Adriana Barraza, Yvette Monreal, Genie Kim aka Yenah Han, Joaquín Cosío, and Óscar Jaenada.
Other films from the 1980s include Nighthawks (1981), with Billy Dee Williams, Lindsay Wagner, Persis Khambatta, Nigel Davenport and Rutger Hauer; John Huston’s Escape to Victory (1981), with Michael Caine, Max von Sydow, and Pelé; Bob Clark’s Rhinestone (1984), with Dolly Parton, Richard Farnsworth, and Ron Leibman; George P. Cosmatos’s Cobra (1986), with Reni Santoni, Nielsen, Andrew Robinson, and Brian Thompson; Over the Top (1987), with Robert Loggia, Susan Blakely, and David Mendenhall; Lock Up (1989), with Sutherland, John Amos, Darlanne Fluegel, Frank McRae, Sonny Landham, and Tom Sizemore; and Tango & Cash (1989), with Kurt Russell, Jack Palance, Teri Hatcher, Michael J. Pollard, James Hong, Brion James, and Robert Z’Dar.
Other films in the early 1990s include John Landis’s Oscar (1991), with Ornella Muti, Peter Riegert. Chazz Palminteri, Marisa Tomei, Vincent Spano, Elizabeth Barondes, Tim Curry, Linda Gray, Smith, Eddie Bracken, Yvonne De Carlo, and Kirk Douglas; Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), with Estelle Getty, JoBeth Williams, and Roger Rees; Cliffhanger (1993), with John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Leon Robinson, Paul Winfield, and Ralph Waite; Demolition Man (1993), with Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthorne, Benjamin Bratt, Denis Leary, Bill Cobbs, Bob Gunton, Glenn Shadix, Troy Evans, Steve Kahan, and Andre Gregory; and The Specialist (1994), with Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Steiger.
Films in the mid to late 1990s include Judge Dredd (1995), with Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and von Sydow; Richard Donner’s Assassins (1995), with Antonio Banderas and Julianne Moore; Daylight (1996), with Amy Brenneman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay O. Sanders, Karen Young, Claire Bloom, Barry Newman, and Stan Shaw; James Mangold’s Cop Land (1997), with Harvey Keitel, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael Rapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmerich and Cathy Moriarty; and a voice role in Antz (1998), with Allen, Stone, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Bancroft, Danny Glover, and Hackman.
Films in the 2000s include Get Carter (2000), with Miranda Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Mickey Rourke, John C. McGinley, Rhona Mitra, and Caine; Driven (2001), with Burt Reynolds, Kip Pardue,
Til Schweiger, Gina Gershon, Estella Warren, and Cristián de la Fuente; D-Tox (2002), with Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Polly Walker, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, Jeffrey Wright, Courtney B. Vance and Kris Kristofferson; Avenging Angelo (2002), with Madeleine Stowe and Anthony Quinn; Shade (2003), with Stuart Townsend, Gabriel Byrne, Thandiwe Newton, Jamie Foxx, Melanie Griffith, Dina Merrill, and Hal Holbrook; Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003), with Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa PenaVega, Daryl Sabara, Ricardo Montalbán, Holland Taylor, Mike Judge, Cheech Marin, and Salma Hayek.
He started up another action movie franchise playing mercenary Barney Ross in The Expendables franchise (2010, 2012, 2014, 2023), collectively with Jason Statham, Jet Li, Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Liam Hemsworth, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kelsey Grammer, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, and Andy García. He directed the first entry and co-wrote the first 3 entries.
Other films in the 2010s include a voice role in Zookeeper (2011), with live action roles by Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb, Ken Jeong, Donnie Wahlberg, Nat Faxon, Joe Rogan, and the voices of Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow, Jim Breuer, Jon Favreau, Faizon Love, Richie Minervini, Maya Rudolph, Bas Rutten, and Don Rickles; Walter Hill’s Bullet to the Head (2012), with Sung Kang, Sarah Shahi, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christian Slater, and Jason Momoa; Escape Plan (2013), with Schwarzenegger, Jim Caviezel, Jackson, Vinnie Jones, Vincent D’Onofrio and Amy Ryan; Grudge Match (2014); with De Niro, Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin, Kim Basinger, and Jon Bernthal; and Reach Me (2014), with Danny Aiello, Berenger, Lauren Cohan, Kevin Connolly, Crews, Cary Elwes, Grammer, Omari Hardwick, Elizabeth Henstridge, Thomas Jane, Ryan Kwanten, Nelly, David O’Hara, Kyra Sedgwick, Tom Sizemore, and Danny Trejo.
Films in the mid to late 2010s include a voice role in Ratchet & Clank (2016), with James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, Paul Giamatti, John Goodman, Bella Thorne, and Dawson; James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), with Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Sean Gunn, Pom Klementieff, and Russell; a voice role in Animal Crackers (2017), with John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen, Patrick Warburton, Raven-Symoné, Harvey Fierstein, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried, Tara Strong, Taylor, Kevin Grevioux, and Lydia Rose Taylor; Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018), with Jackson, Bautista, Huang Xiaoming, Jaime King, Jesse Metcalfe, Titus Welliver, and Wes Chatham; Blacktrace (2019), with Ryan Guzman, Meadow Williams, Christopher McDonald, Colin Egglesfield, Lydia Hull, Tyler Jon Olson, Sergio Rizzuto, Swen Temmel, and Matthew Modine; and Escape Plan: Extraction (2019), with Jackson. Bautista, King, Max Zhang, Harry Shum, Jr., Malese Jow, and Devon Sawa.
Films in the 2020s include The Suicide Squad (2021), with Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, David Dastmalchian, Daniela Melchior, Rooker, Jai Courtney, Peter Capaldi, Alice Braga, Pete Davidson, Taika Waititi, and Viola Davis; Samaritan (2022), with Javon “Wanna” Walton, Pilou Asbæk, Dascha Polanco, and Moisés Arias; Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), with much of the precious cast plus Will Poulter, Chukwudi Iwuji, Linda Cardellini, and Nathan Fillion; Armor (2024), with Jason Patric, Josh Wiggins, and Dash Mihok; and Alarum (2025), with Scott Eastwood, Willa Fitzgerald, Mike Colter, Ísis Valverde, and Joel Cohen.
He also served as writer or producer on such films as Homefront (2013), with Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Rachelle Lefevre, Frank Grillo, Clancy Brown, and Izabela Vidovic; Lost on a Mountain in Maine (2024), with Luke David Blumm, Paul Sparks, and Caitlin FitzGerald; and A Working Man (2025, with Statham, Jason Flemyng, Michael Peña, and David Harbour. He also started in crime dramedy series Tulsa King (2022 to present), with Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, A.C. Peterson, Garrett Hedlund, and Dana Delany.
Each review will be linked to the title below.
(*seen originally in theaters)
(**seen rereleased in theaters)
- The Square Root (1969) – directed by Edmond Chevie – uncredited extra
- Downhill Racer (1969) – directed by Michael Ritchie – uncredited extra
- MAS*H (1970) – directed by Robert Altman – uncredited extra
- The Party at Kitty and Stud’s (1970) – directed by Morton Lewis
- Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) – directed by Cy Howard – uncredited extra
- The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (1970) – directed by John Dexter – uncredited extra
- Bananas (1971) – directed by Woody Allen – uncredited
- Klute (1971) – directed by Alan J. Pakula – uncredited extra
- What’s Up, Doc? (1972) – directed by Peter Bogdanovich – uncredited extra
- No Place to Hide (1973) – directed by Robert Allen Schnitzer
- The Lords of Flatbush (1974) – directed by Martin Davidson & Stephen F. Verona – also co-writer (additional dialogue)
- The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975) – directed by Melvin Frank – bit part
- Capone (1975) – directed by Steve Carver
- Death Race 2000 (1975) – directed by Paul Bartel
- Mandingo (1975) – directed by Richard Fleischer – uncredited extra
- Farewell, My Lovely (1975) – directed by Dick Richards – bit part
- Cannonball! (1976) – directed by Paul Bartel – uncredited cameo
- Rocky (1976) – directed by John G. Avildsen – also writer
- F.I.S.T. (1978) – directed by Norman Jewison – also co-writer
- Paradise Alley (1978) – also director, writer
- Rocky II (1979) – also director, co-writer
- Nighthawks (1981) – directed by Bruce Malmuth
- Escape to Victory (1981) – directed by John Huston
- Rocky III (1982) – also director, writer
- First Blood (1982) – directed by Ted Kotcheff – also co-writer
- Staying Alive (1983) – uncredited cameo, director, co-writer
- Rhinestone (1984) – directed by Bob Clark – also co-writer
- Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) – directed by George P. Cosmatos – also co-writer
- Rocky IV (1985) – also director, writer
- Cobra (1986) – directed by George P. Cosmatos – also writer
- Over the Top (1987) – directed by Menahem Golan – also co-writer
- Rambo III (1988) – directed by Peter MacDonald – also co-writer
- Lock Up (1989) – directed by John Flynn
- Tango & Cash (1989) – directed by Andrei Konchalovsky – uncredited direction by Albert Magnoli & Peter MacDonald
- Rocky V (1990) – directed by John G. Avildsen – also writer
- Oscar (1991) – directed by John Landis
- Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) – directed by Roger Spottiswoode
- Cliffhanger (1993) – directed by Renny Harlin – also co-writer
- Demolition Man (1993) – directed by Marco Brambilla
- The Specialist (1994) – directed by Luis Llosa
- Your Studio and You (1995) – directed by Trey Parker – uncredited cameo as himself – short
- Judge Dredd (1995) – directed by Danny Cannon
- Assassins (1995) – directed by Richard Donner
- Daylight (1996) – directed by Rob Cohen
- Cop Land (1997) – directed by James Mangold
- An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) – directed by Arthur Hiller (as Alan Smithee) – cameo as himself
- Antz (1998)* – directed by Eric Darnell & Tim Johnson
- Get Carter (2000) – directed by Stephen Kay
- Driven (2001) – directed by Renny Harlin – also writer
- D-Tox (2002) – directed by Jim Gillespie
- Taxi 3 (2003) – directed by Gérard Krawczyk – uncredited cameo
- Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)* – directed by Robert Rodriguez
- Avenging Angelo (2003) – directed by Martyn Burke
- Shade (2004) – directed by Damian Nieman
- Rocky Balboa (2006) – also director, writer
- Rambo (2008)* – also director, co-writer
- Kambakkht Ishq (2009) – directed by Sabbir Khan – cameo as himself
- The Expendables (2010)* – also director, co-writer
- Zookeeper (2011) – directed by Frank Coraci
- The Expendables 2 (2012)* – directed by Simon West – also co-writer
- Bullet to the Head (2013) – directed by Walter Hill
- Escape Plan (2013) – directed by Mikael Håfström
- Homefront (2013) – directed by Gary Fleder – writer, producer only
- Grudge Match (2013) – directed by Peter Segal
- The Expendables 3 (2014) – directed by Patrick Hughes – also co-writer
- Reach Me (2014) – directed by John Herzfeld
- Creed (2015)* – directed by Ryan Coogler – also uncredited additional dialogue
- Ratchet & Clank (2016) – directed by Kevin Munroe & Jericca Cleland
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)* – directed by James Gunn
- Escape Plan 2: Hades (2018) – directed by Steven C. Miller – straight to video
- Creed II (2018) – directed by Steven Caple Jr. – also co-writer
- Backtrace (2018) – directed by Brian A. Miller
- Escape Plan: The Extractors (2019) – directed by John Herzfeld – straight to video
- Rambo: Last Blood (2019) – directed by Adrian Grünberg – also co-writer, co-story
- Animal Crackers (2020) – directed by Scott Christian Sava & Tony Bancroft
- The Suicide Squad (2021)* – directed by James Gunn
- Samaritan (2022) – directed by Julius Avery – also executive producer
- Creed III (2023) – directed by Michael B. Jordan – producer only
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)* – directed by James Gunn
- The Expendables 4 (2023) – directed by Scott Waugh
- Sly (2023) – directed by Thom Zimny – himself – documentary – also executive producer
- Armored (2024) – directed by Justin Routt
- Alarum (2024) – directed by Michael Polish
- Levon’s Trade (2025) – directed by David Ayer – writer, producer only
