Rocky premieres
On this day in 1976 Rocky starring Sylvester Stallone as the underdog prizefighter Rocky Balboa debuts in New York City.The movie which opened in theaters across the United States on December 3 1976 was a huge box-office hit and received 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay for the then-little known Stallone.Rocky ultimately took home three Oscars including one for Best Picture and made Stallone one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6 1946 in New York City.
By the early 1970s he had begun his professional acting career appearing in off-Broadway shows and bit movie roles.Frustrated by his lack of success Stallone started penning screenplays including The Lords of Flatbush (1974) in which he co-starred with another relatively unknown young actor named Henry Winkler.Stallones career was transformed after the success of his next screenplay Rocky in which he insisted on playing the lead.
Produced on a shoestring budget the film told the story of Rocky Balboa a small-time down-on-his-luck Philadelphia boxer who works as a debt collector for a loan shark before getting a shot at the world heavyweight championship.Rocky includes such memorable lines as Yo Adrian (directed at Rockys love interest played by Talia Shire) and Youre gonna eat lightning youre gonna crap thunder as well as the now-iconic scene in which Rocky takes a training run up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art as the movies theme song Gonna Fly Now plays.Stallone went on to write and star in five more Rocky movies Rocky II (1979) Rocky III (1982) Rocky IV (1985) Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006).Stallone struck Hollywood movie-franchise gold a second time playing the action-hero John Rambo a troubled ex-Green Beret and Vietnam War vet.
Stallone portrayed Rambo in First Blood (1982) Rambo First Blood Part II (1985) Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008).In addition to the Rocky and Rambo movies Stallones long list of film credits includes Rhinestone (1984) with Dolly Parton Tango & Cash (1989) with Kurt Russell Cliffhanger (1993) with John Lithgow and Janine Turner and Cop Land (1997) with Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta.Stallone made his directorial debut with Paradise Alley (1978) and has also helmed several of the Rocky and Rambo films.
