Sylvester Stallone is an American actor, filmmaker and screenwriter. Sylvester Stallone is an icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism. Sylvester Stallone has played two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon: Rocky Balboa and John Rambo. These franchises, along with several other hit films helped Sylvester Stallone become one of the major film stars and box office attractions during the 1980s.

Sylvester is the son of Frank Stallone, Sr., a hairdresser, and Jackie, an astrologer, former dancer and promoter of women`s wrestling. He is the brother of actor and musician Frank Stallone. Sylvester Stallone`s grandfather was born in Gioia del Colle, in the region of Puglia, Italy, and emigrated to the United States as a child, while Stallone`s mother was born in Washington, D.C. of French and Russian Jewish descent.

Sylvester Stallone dropped out of the beauty school he was attending 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 Sylvester Stallone enrolled in the Theater Arts Department at University of Miami for three years.

Sylvester Stallone came within a few credit hours of graduation before he decided to drop out and pursue a career writing screenplays under the pen names Q. Moonblood and J.J. Deadlock while at the same time taking bit parts in movies.