Daily Mirror - 19.08.2019

mirror.co.uk MONDAY 19.08.2019 DAILY MIRROR^15

DM1ST

50 YEARS OF MOVIE MAGIC

Sly’s Rocky road

...from sleeping

rough to £330m

Hollywood star

WIFE NO.

WIFE NO.

WIFE NO.

appeared alongside Sly in Rocky IV.

Now a big box office star, Stallone

naturally went on to date a series of

models including Angie Everhart, 49,

before getting engaged to Janice Dick-

inson, now 64.

He even famously dumped on-off

19-year-old girlfriend Jennifer Flavin

• who would go on to be his third wife


• by FedEx when he wrongly thought
  he was the father of Janice’s child.
  Finally rekindling his romance with
  Flavin, now 50, Stallone settled down
  and married his model sweetheart in
  May 1997 in London.
  And continuing the family man’s
  habit of giving his children names
  beginning with S, the glamorous
  couple went on to have three beautiful
  daughters, 22-year-old Sophia, actress

Sistine, 21, and 17-year-old Scarlet.

Along with Rocky, his other long-

lasting franchise is the Rambo series,

which first exploded on to our screens

with First Blood in 1982.

P

laying former Green Beret John

Rambo and snarling, “Don’t

push me” before mowing down

everything that moved made

Stallone one of the biggest-ever bank-

able Hollywood stars.

He then cemented his hardman

image with more hits such as Cobra,

Cliffhanger and Judge Dredd.

The physical effort required by Stal-

lone to prepare for his action hero

roles meant the star was in the gym

twice a day, six days a week, even

claiming to have reduced his body fat

to 2.8% for Rocky III when the base for

champion bodybuilders is 4%.

With a reputation for doing his own

stunts, Stallone also suffered many

injuries, in Rocky IV he asked Dolph

Lundgren to punch him really hard

• and ended up in intensive care.
  His star began to wane after a series
  of movie flops. Stallone himself has
  said that he felt his career was dead in
  the mid-noughties before he scored
  big with Rocky Balboa in 2008.
  The action hero’s reputation took a
  further battering when ex-wife
  Nielsen went into Channel 4’s Celeb-
  rity Big Brother in 2005.
  The reality show put the cat among
  the pigeons when her former enemy
  and mother-in-law, Jackie Stallone,
  now 97, also entered the BB house. By

then Jackie

had become

a celebrity in

her own right.

Meanwhile the

actor had been fighting for the rights

to his Rocky character but gave up

after years of dealing with lawyers. It

means he does not get a cut when the

movie is screened on television.

He revealed: “I was told, look,

they’re giving you more money on

Rocky III. They took their chances,

and you’re not entitled to it.

“I was so preoccupied with other

things I never really pushed it.”

The star admitted: “By the time we

got around to Rocky Balboa, I was in

a pretty weak position to say anything.

“I was in a slump and was let go by

my agency. Fired basically.” But he has

hit the jackpot again with The

Expendables movies and Rocky spin-

offs Creed and Creed II.

And as Stallone once said, “Every

champion was once a contender who

refused to give up,” and true to his

word, he has revealed plans for a ninth

Rocky are in the pipeline.

“There’s a good chance that Rocky

may ride again. We’re high on it,” he

said. He revealed the movie’s plot

would take the hero south of the

border to Mexico and is “very timely”.

Indeed, given US immigration

policy under current management, it

is fitting that Rocky may face his

greatest foe yet – Donald Trump.

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Model Jennifer Flavin...

he once dumped her for

Janice Dickinson, right

Actress Brigitte Nielsen

With Sasha Czack in 1984