Sylvester Stallone
Born: 6th July 1946
Where: New York, USA
The Oscar-winning actor and director knocked the critics for six with the boxing drama Rocky, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards.
Scripted in just three days, the 1976 film won the best picture Oscar while Stallone - inspired by the Ali-Chuck Wepner fight - took best director.
Stallone's other long-running success was the Rambo series and he also made a critically acclaimed performance in the thriller Cop Land.
The son of a Sicilian immigrant barber and Jackie Labofish (who would later go on to fame as an astrologer and a contestant in Celebrity Big Brother), he failed to achieve at high school.
He went on to teach children of career diplomats and young royalty at the American College of Switzerland, and on return to America enrolled in the University of Florida, dropping out of school to act.
(Born by a forcep delivery, a nerve in his face was severed, paralysing one side of his lip, chin and tongue so that he grew up with a lopsided appearance and trademark indistinct speech.)
Moving to New York, he worked as an usher at Walter Reade Theater while writing screenplays and also swept out Bronx Zoo lion cages.
His career started inauspicously in the hardcore porn film Party at Kitty and Stud's. The pornographic segments have been lost but the film did give Stallone the title of "Italian Stallion".
Early minor roles included Woody Allen's Bananas and the psychological thriller Klute before his first starring part in 1974's The Lord of Flatbush.
Rocky changed everything and Stallone would star as the vulnerable boxer in five more movies culminating in Rocky Balboa in 2007.
In 1982, he enjoyed box office success with the character of John Rambo in the excellent action thriller First Blood.
Subsequent outings for the Vietnam War hero would not be quite so rewarding and Stallone failed to capitalise on his success with a string of naff eighties and nineties fare including Tango & Cash (with Kurt Russell), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot and Demolition Man.
Bucking the trend, the decent Cliffhanger (which he co-wrote) was a major box office hit and 1995's Judge Dredd created a cult following.
Stallone went on to achieve a degree of respectability when he waived his normal salary and bulked up for a role opposite Robert De Niro in 1997's Cop Land.
However, he fared less well with the lacklustre Driven, the ill-advised remake of the Tynside-set gangster thriller Get Carter and the woeful De-Tox.
In the early noughties work has included minor roles and cameos in the likes of Taxi 3 and Spy Kids: Game Over.
In 2004, he had the dubious accolade of being named the all time Razzie Award champion, with a record 30 nominations and 10 "wins" (First Blood II and The Specialist were named as all-time guilty pleasures).
However, he received repectable reviews for Rocky's comeback movie Rocky Balboa in 2007 and he will soon attempt to repeat the feat by resurrecting his Veitnam veteran, John Rambo,
