Sylvester Stallone shoveled lion poop, ‘mugged’ Woody Allen before ‘Rocky’ fame

Growing up, Sylvester Stallone, who would go on to become well-known for his powerful roles, suffered from severe bullying.

On July 6, 1946, Sylvester Stallone was born, but something went awry during the birth.

In his latest book, “The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage,” Nick de Semlyen writes, “The doctor on duty clamped forceps onto his head as he emerged from the womb and pulled, too hard, severing a facial nerve above his jaw.” (Crown, out now).

The accident resulted in a small droop on the left side of his face as well as the speaking impediment that became his signature, which the actor would subsequently liken to the “guttural echoing of a mafioso pallbearer.”

After being called names like “Slant Mouth,” “Sylvia,” and “Mr. Potato Head” at school, Stallone told reporters that his appearance and speech had made him feel “like a poster boy for a nightmare.”

His physically violent father, who severely beat him and his brother Frank Jr. while berating them for not being intelligent, did not make life any easier. How come you’re not stronger?

813-year-old Sylvester Stallone had an epiphany when he saw the movie “Hercules Unchained” starring the muscular Steve Reeves.Courtesy Everett Collection

The rage this caused led to a reckless nature. Stallone had broken at least 10 bones by age 12, and was voted by his teachers as, “Student Most Likely To End Up In The Electric Chair.”

But his young life was turned around at age 13, when he saw the movie “Hercules Unchained” starring the muscle-bound former Mr. Universe, Steve Reeves.

“It was like seeing the Messiah,” Stallone later recalled. “I said, ‘This is what I want to be.’ ”

8Stallone marketing his program “Tulsa King” in Italy in 2022.Formula 1 courtesy of Getty Images

Stallone developed an obsession with working out, converting all of the furniture in his home into exercise equipment and making barbells out of cinder blocks strapped to broomsticks.

At every chance, he started lifting anything he could lay his hands on.

He had a difficult time getting by when he first came in New York in 1969 on his search for fame and money. He had to sleep on a bus station bench for nearly two weeks while attempting to ignore the growing number of junkies in the area.

At the Central Park Zoo, Stallone was shoveling lion feces in 1970 and making $1.12 per hour.

8Though he began his career in the Central Park Zoo shoveling animal excrement, he would go on to become well-known worldwide as Rambo.©TriStar Pictures/Everett Collection Courtesy

Even though this seems terrible, it got worse when the lions would periodically urinate on him and leave behind an unpleasant smell that would burn in his eyes.

Stallone would later remark, “Not too many people ever have the thrill of seeing lions taking giant leaks.”

“Let me tell you, they’re accurate to within fifteen feet, and I gave up after getting whizzed on for a month.”As for Stallone, he was a voracious reader and at first believed that experimental theater would be his medium.Pablo Picasso wrote “Desire Caught by the Tail,” his only play (perhaps because it was terrible), in three days in 1941, and he was cast as a “Minotaur-like creature” for the show.

The author, de Semlyen, claims that there was no storyline.

8″A vile, putrid, festering little street drama” about “a good guy surrounded by rotten people,” is how Stallone would later characterize the film “Rocky.”Shutterstock / Moviestore

“Names like Onion, Fat Anguish, and the Bow-Wows were given to the characters. There was to be farting and laughing at the same time.

When Stallone saw his outfit—which included “red horns, a scarlet fright wig on his groin, and a huge fake penis”—he realized how horrible the performance was.

Stallone subsequently recounted, “It was a giant red appendage that you had to wrap around and stick in your G-string, because it was bothering you.” “You truly weren’t able to walk.”

On stage, this awkward device wasn’t always as effective as it should have been.

8At first, “Bananas” director Woody Allen felt that Stallone wasn’t terrifying enough to portray a mugger.The Bettmann Archives

According to de Semlyen, “the penis escaped its cloth prison and bounced up and down like a spring, provoking a wave of unintentional laughter] one night as [Stallone] hobbled around the ramshackle stage.”

One of the other actors accidentally shot Stallone in the face with a fire extinguisher, freezing his lips and eyes shut. This led to Stallone ending up in the hospital the next evening. The performance ended after just three weeks due to the event, and Stallone’s face turned an unusual shade of brown for the following four months.

He was first turned down by the screenwriter/director of the Woody Allen comedy “Bananas” because he wasn’t scary enough during his audition.

But Stallone managed to persuade Allen to reconsider.

According to de Semlyen, “Stallone and his friend Johnny, another aspiring actor, ran Vaseline through their hair, rubbed soot on their faces, and returned, scaring Allen into giving them parts.”

8After their initial meeting, Irwin Winkler—who would go on to produce “Rocky”—thought little of Stallone, calling it “one of those awkward meetings where you keep glancing at your watch.”WireImage

Stallone started landing bit parts.

In “The Lords of Flatbush,” he starred with Henry Winkler and Richard Gere as 1950s greasers. However, Gere left the movie after a scene where he unintentionally spilled mustard on Stallone’s clothes, which caused Stallone to elbow Gere in the skull.

Stallone was also attempting to break through as a writer during this period, flinging off wild ideas and writing hasty screenplays under pen names like Q. Moonblood and J.J. Deadlock. His concepts were frequently absurd.

One had a rock star with a condition that only bananas could treat. Another saw a group of irate, jobless actors kidnapping and blending a producer.

After a while, he focused on what he subsequently called “a vile, putrid, festering little street drama” with “a good guy surrounded by rotten people.” Real-life boxer Chuck Wepner, a little-known underdog who made it to the fifteenth round before losing to Muhammad Ali in 1975, served as the model for the main character, Rocky Balboa.

8Rocky Balboa was modeled by Sylvester Stallone after real-life boxer Chuck Wepner, a lesser-known underdog who defeated Muhammad Ali in 1975 despite making it to the fifteenth round.Getty Photographs

However, at initially, not even “Rocky” found the red carpet put out for its creator.

After their initial encounter, Stallone was viewed negatively by Irwin Winkler, who would go on to produce “Rocky,” characterizing it as “one of those awkward meetings where you keep glancing at your watch and wondering how long it will be before you can ask him to leave.” However, United Artists, the studio with whom Winkler had a deal, first declined to entertain the idea of making a movie about a group of “ugly ducklings,” even after Winkler consented to produce it.

“If you believe in yourself, there’s a wonderful opportunity for you,” says this movie. It told a story that the public was interested in at the time.

Producer Irwin Winkler discusses “Rocky’s” popularity.

Moreover, Stallone’s insistence on being the movie’s star made it much more difficult to strike a contract.

Eventually, United Artists, who had been hoping to cast Ryan O’Neal or Burt Reynolds, agreed to let Stallone portray Rocky if they filmed the movie for a pitiful $1 million, the same sum they had promised Stallone years earlier if he would just sell them the screenplay and walk away.

Rocky became an icon thanks to Stallone’s tenacity and this solace.

With $117 million in box office receipts, the movie emerged as the year’s biggest draw. In addition to earning Stallone Oscar nods for Best Actor and Best Screenplay and winning Best Picture, it raked in more money than the combined hits “Taxi Driver,” “Carrie,” and “Network.”

8 “The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood’s Kings of Carnage” was written by Nick de Semlyen.

Winkler attributed the movie’s success to hope, a quality that was highly sought after at the time and which Stallone had undoubtedly demonstrated on his path to stardom in Hollywood.

In the book, Winkler stated, “We’d all gone through Vietnam, and the youth rebellion, and Nixon, and the plumbers, and Watergate.”

“And all of a sudden, this movie appears and tells you that you have a fantastic opportunity if you believe in yourself. It told a story that the public was interested in at the time.