Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone celebrates his birthday on July 6. During his career as underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, Stallone has earned three Academy Award nominations — two for the original “Rocky” — and a third for his reprisal in the film sequel “Creed.” He received the same three noms for the Golden Globe Award, and this last time and won with the HFPA for his Rocky reprisal in “Creed.” Take a photo gallery tour of his 12 greatest films, ranked from worst to best, including “Rambo,” “Cliffhanger,” “Paradise Alley,” “F.I.S.T.” and more.
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12. OSCAR (1991)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Director: John Landis. Writers: Michael Barrie, Jim Mulholland, based on the play by Claude Magnier. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Peter Riegert, Tim Curry, Marisa Tomei, Kirk Douglas.
Yes, you read it right, “Oscar” was based on a French play that was turned into a 1967 French movie, which hardly seems to scream “Sylvester Stallone” remake potential. But “Animal House” director John Landis followed through and made this screwball comedy in which Stallone plays flashy gangster “Snaps” Provolone who promises his dying father (Kirk Douglas) that he will go straight, but his efforts to be a legit banker are complicated by his daughter Lisa (Marisa Tomei) who’s pregnant and has no idea who the father is.
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11. CLIFFHANGER (1993)
Image Credit: Snap/REX/Shutterstock Director: Renny Harlin. Writers: Michael France, Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner.
In this Alpine suspense thriller which he also co-wrote, Stallone portrays Gabe Walker, an ex-mountain climber who is still haunted by the fact that he failed to save his girlfriend (Janine Turner) from falling off a cliff. He gets another shot at redemption when he gets a call to rescue survivors of a plane crash on a nearby mountain, but unfortunately they are led by evil intelligence officer Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) who forces Gabe to lead him to a quest to find the $100 million that was stashed on the plane. Admittedly, “Cliffhanger” is hooey, but it’s fun hooey.
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10. NIGHTHAWKS (1981)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Bruce Malmuth. Writer: David Shaber. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer, Lindsay Wagner.
In Stallone’s 1981 thriller directed By Bruce Malmuth, his character, NYPD Det. Deke DeSilva, first appears in drag, a first for Stallone, but don’t get your hopes up. Besides the fact that he’s not pretty, Deke is undercover to try to successfully ensnare a gang of subway assailants. But then it’s on to seeking out to seeking out terrorist Wulfgar Reinhardt (Rutger Hauer) who hopes to wreak havoc on New York, a role that Stallone handles with his usual aplomb.
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9. THE LORDS OF FLATBUSH (1974)
Image Credit: Ebbets Field Film/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Martin Davidson, Stephen Verona. Writers: Martin Davidson, Stephen Verona, Gayle Geckler. Starring Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler, Maria Smith.
Stallone puts on his leather jacket in this street-savvy film (at the time) in which he portrays Stanley Rosiello, a Brooklyn teen who is part of a gang that call themselves The Lords of Flatbush. Stanley has particular problems, since his girlfriend Frannie (Maria Smith) has announced that she is possibly pregnant. Only it turns out that she isn’t. Complications ensue.
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8. ANTZ (1998)
Image Credit: Dreamworks Llc/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Eric Darnell, Tim Johnson. Writers: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz, Todd Alcott. Voices: Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackman, Jennifer Lopez.
In “Antz,” the first animated film from Dreamworks, Stallone voices the character of Corporal Weaver, who is a courageous soldier in the ants’ army and the best friend of a nervous ant nicknamed Z (Woody Allen). After Z changes places with Weaver and joins the army to impress princess ant Bala (Sharon Stone), he is inadvertently hailed as a war hero. Stallone, for whom “Antz” was his first animated character voice work, doesn’t try to use any kind of funny voice but delivers pure Stallone, which is what works for the character anyway.
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7. PARADISE ALLEY (1978)
Image Credit: Snap/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Lee Canalito, Anne Archer, Kevin Conway.
Stallone’s feature directorial debut, “Paradise Alley” is set in the world of pro wrestling in the 1940s. Stallone plays Cosmo, one of three brothers all of whom are anxious to get out of Hell’s Kitchen to fulfill their dreams. Always on the lookout to make a buck, Cosmo convinces his brother Victor (Lee Canalito) to wrestle under the name Kid Salami and have brother Lenny (Armand Assante in his first screen role) become his manager. It’s a solid filmmaking first effort by Stallone, especially given the fact that he had to direct himself in front of the camera as well.
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6. F.I.S.T. (1978)
Image Credit: United Artists/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Norman Jewison. Writers: Joe Eszterhas, Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon.
As the first film that Stallone starred in after “Rocky,” Norman Jewison’s “F.I.S.T” finds him in a different world — that of the era of union organizing in the 1930s. Angered at the unfair labor practices on his loading dock, worker Johnny Novak (Stallone) leads a riot against the powers that be. He’s fired, of course, but gets a job organizing workers for the Federation of Inter State Truckers (FIST). Jewison helms the film in his usually reliable manner, and “F.I.S.T” proved to be a shrewd follow-up to “Rocky,” drawing on his brawny image while expanding his character range.
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5. DEATH RACE 2000 (1975)
Image Credit: New World/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Paul Bartel. Writers: Robert Thom, Charles Griffith. Starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Waranov.
“Death Race 2000” is the only film on this list that can be properly called a hoot. In Paul Bartel’s dystopian fantasy, the U.S. Government, now a totalitarian regime, declares martial law, but to appease the disgruntled masses, they try to placate them by organizing the Transcontinental Road Race in which drivers in high-powered cars speed across the country, trying to hit as many pedestrians as possible to rack up big points. The two favorites are the mysterious black-clad Frankenstein (David Carradine) and the flamboyant gangster Machine-Gun Joe Viturbo (Stallone, overacting gloriously), and how they battle each other is a sight to behold.
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4. FIRST BLOOD / RAMBO series (1982, 1985, 1988, 2008)
Image Credit: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Various. Writers: Various, although Stallone had a hand in writing all four. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna.
The popularity of the Stallone’s character of John Rambo in 1982’s “First Blood,” directed by Ted Kotcheff, led to an unexpected second successful franchise for Stallone. Rambo, a troubled Vietnam vet living in a small town with an abusive police force, uses his knowledge of weaponry and survival skills to fight back against the oppressive regime to make things right. Subsequent editions of the series grew Rambo’s quest for justice to locations around the world.
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3. COP LAND (1997)
Image Credit: Rhonda Galbraith/AP/REX/Shutterstock Writer/Director: James Mangold. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Harvey Keitel.
No matter in which what genre he’s ostensibly working, whether it be musicals (“Walk the Line”) or Westerns (“3:10 to Yuma”), James Mangold’s films are character dramas. And so it is here in the cop genre where Stallone faced the challenge of working with such great character actors as Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta and Harvey Keitel, and here, Stallone is very much their equal as an overweight town sheriff who sniffs out and tries to stop his town’s rampant police corruption. Whether the film’s success is thanks to Mangold’s script or Stallone’s dedication (likely both), “Cop Land” is a superb example of what Stallone’s career could have become had he transitioned into being a character actor.
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2. ROCKY series (1976, 1979, 1982, 1985, 1990, 2006)
Image Credit: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock Directors: Various. Writer: Sylvester Stallone. Starring Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith.
Until the end of time, Sylvester Stallone will be known as that Philadelphia boxing champion Rocky Balboa. That first film, written by and starring Stallone, won the Oscar for Best Picture over this murderer’s row of nominees — “Bound for Glory,” “Taxi Driver,” “All the President’s Men” and “Network”!! The series varied in quality after that, but Stallone remained committed to the character throughout. For his first performance as Rocky and for his screenplay of the first film, Stallone was nominated for his first and second Academy Award as well as his first and second Golden Globe Award.
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1. CREED (2015)
Image Credit: The Moviestore Collection Ltd/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ryan Coogler. Writers: Ryan Coogler, Aaron Covington. Starring Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad.
With the final “Rocky” installment nine years prior, it looked like the franchise had come to its end. But it underwent a brilliant reboot by writer/director Ryan Coogler, who approached the series from another angle, that of the family’s Rocky’s original opponent Apollo Creed. Apollo’s son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan, brilliant) wants to forge his own path in the boxing world, and he calls on Rocky Balboa to become his trainer. Nearly four decades after the first “Rocky,” Stallone deepened his original performance, giving the aging Rocky a world-weariness that he could never had otherwise achieved earlier in his career. For his performance as Rocky, Stallone won his first Golden Globe Award and earned his third nomination for an Academy Award.
