Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (born July 6, 1946), nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, director (film director), producer (film producer) and screenwriter. One of the biggest box office draws in the world from the 1970s to the 1990s, Stallone is an icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism. He has played two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon: Rocky Balboa, the boxer who overcame odds to fight for love and glory, and John Rambo, a courageous soldier who specialized in violent rescue and revenge missions. During the 1980s and the better part of 1990s, he was one of the biggest movie stars in the world with the Rocky (Rocky (film series)) and Rambo (Rambo (film series)) franchises along with several other mega blockbuster hit films.

Stallones film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry as well as having its film props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. Stallones use of the front entrance to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the Rocky series led the area to be nicknamed the Rocky Steps. Philadelphia has a statue of his Rocky character placed permanently near the museum, on the right side before the steps.