Bio provided by NBC.
Sylvester Stallone has established worldwide recognition as an actor, writer and director since he played the title role in his own screenplay of “Rocky,” which won the Academy Award in 1976 for Best Picture. Stallone’s new project is “The Contender,” a powerful and action-packed reality series for NBC.
Born in New York City, Stallone attended school in suburban Philadelphia where he first started acting and also became a star football player. He then spent two years instructing at the American College of Switzerland in Geneva.
Returning to the United States, Stallone enrolled as a drama major at the University of Miami and also began to write. He left college to pursue an acting career in New York City, but the jobs did not come easily. By 1973, Stallone had auditioned for almost every casting agent in New York and had gone on thousands of acting calls, with little success.
During this period, he turned more and more to writing, churning out numerous screenplays while waiting for his acting break. The opportunity first came in 1974 when he was cast as one of the leads in “The Lords of Flatbush.” He also received his first writing credit for “additional dialogue” on this film.
