Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Gardenzio "Sly" Stallone was born in Manhattan, New York. His family moved to Washington, D.C., before settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to complications at birth, Sly was born with paralysis in some parts of his face, which resulted in a permanent slur of his speech. His father was a hairdresser and his mother was a dancer. His parents frequently fought and later divorced.

Growing up, Sly did not perform well in school. He was expelled three times. He also attended a special school for troubled children. After high school, Sly attended Miami State University to study drama, but dropped out and moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He always wanted to become an actor in movies to inspire people around the world to overcome their struggles, much like he was doing with his own life. To make ends meet, Sly worked all kinds of jobs, including cleaning lions' cages at the Central Park Zoo and ushering at a movie theater. Having been evicted from his apartment and homeless for several weeks, often sleeping in the Port Authority Bus Tunnel, Sly starred in the softcore pornographic film A Party at Kiddy and Studs (1970) for some money to get back on his feet.

At twenty-eight years old, Sly married Sasha Suzcuk and they moved into a small apartment building, which had no heating or air conditioning. He often fought with his wife, who wanted him to get a "real job." Sly was denied by many agents, who said they had no business for someone with an injured face. They went so far as to say that he was "dumb looking" and that he had no future in acting. However, Sly was persistent. He visited the same agents' offices five to ten times, repeatedly asking for acting work. In total, it is said he was kicked out of agents' offices an estimated 1,500 times. Sly eventually landed his first acting role after waiting overnight in one agent's office, who initially refused to see him. He proceeded to land minor acting roles, which never led to anything further.

While living in a cold apartment, Sly took comfort in the warm New York Public Library, where he discovered the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe. He also discovered his love for writing. Sly loved creating inspirational stories where the character overcomes an unbelievable situation, much like his own life. He wrote his own screenplays but had a tough time with selling them. He sold his first story, Paradise Day, for $100. Times were rough, and Sly had no money to feed himself, let alone his dog. On the lowest day of his life, Sly sold his dog for $25 to a man outside of a liquor store. Walking away from the sale, he cried, as he had lost his best friend.

A couple of weeks later, Sly watched the Muhammad Ali/Chuck Whepner fight on television. He watched as the underdog Chuck Whepner took Ali's punches and even managed to knock Ali out. Sly became inspired. The minute the fight ended, he started writing. He wrote for twenty straight hours. After three days, Sly completed writing a screenplay about a rags-to-riches American dream story of Rocky Balboa, an underdog boxer who overcomes his life's struggles as a club boxer and debt collector for a local loan shark to get a shot at the world heavyweight championship.

Sly pitched his movie script to agents around New York City. He received numerous rejections, with some agents labeling it as "predictable," "stupid," and "sappy," but Sly was relentless. One day, Sly met filmmakers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler during an audition. Before he left, he mentioned that he was also a writer. The two filmmakers agreed to review Sly's screenplay and became interested after reading it. They offered to buy it from Sly for $360,000, under the condition that he not take the lead role. Sly refused. He was Rocky, and it was his script. He refused to let anyone else star in it, even though he was broke, starving, and barely making ends meet. After repeated attempts, the two filmmakers caved. They offered Sly $35,000 and the lead role in Rocky (1976) for the script. Sly gladly accepted. The first thing Sly did, after receiving the money, was return to the liquor store in hopes that the man he had sold his dog to would return. He did, and Sly purchased his dog back for $15,000 and a role in Rocky (1976).

With a budget of $1 million, Rocky (1976) was filmed in just twenty-eight days. Sly's body took a toll during the filming. At times, he almost collapsed on the floor due to physical exhaustion. To lower costs, he enlisted his family and close friends to play minor roles. His dog and its former owner were also cast into the film. Rocky (1976) was released on November 21, 1976 and became a sleeper hit, grossing $117 million in the box office nationwide. The film won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing at the 1976 Academy Awards, with ten overall nominations, and catapulted Sly into stardom.