Fascinating facts about Stallone: A career built on determination

A boy who was homeless, cleaned animal cages at the zoo and slept at a bus station in New York city. He worked very hard but earned minor roles in films. At his lowest phase, he wrote his dream script in just 3 days. After years of rejections and hard work, his dream project “Rocky” was released and he rose to stardom in style. Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone was born on July 6, 1946 in New York city, USA. He had a difficult birth, which resulted in partial facial paralysis and slurred speech leading to taunts from other children. His parents divorced when he was young, and Sylvester and his brother Frank lived with their mother in poverty.

He struggled at school, and was always in trouble. He was expelled from 14 different high schools. Stallone dropped out of high school to build an acting career in New York. He constantly faced rejections. After years of trying, he had minor success and was only getting small roles in films earning little money. So to survive, he was working all kinds of jobs. He was cleaning lion cages at the zoo. He was working as an usher at the movie theater and ended up being so broke that he was homeless. He slept at a bus station for a few weeks, and sold his dog Butkus, for 50 dollars and walked away crying. One day, he watched a boxing match that inspired him to write a screenplay about an up-and-coming boxer. He stayed up writing for 20 hours straight and finished the whole screenplay in 3 days. When he tried to sell the script, nobody wanted it.