The 35th anniversary of the 1976 Oscar-winning film “Rocky” is marked with a TV retrospective in which Sylvester Stallone and others reminisce about the creation of the movie as well as the other films in the franchise.
12-27-2011
1h 28m
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Main Cast
Movie Details
Production Info
Writers:
David Stephan, Dan Goldman, Rob Goldberg
Key Crew
Producer:
David Stephan
Producer:
Dan Goldman
Locations and Languages
Country:
US
Filming:
US
Languages:
en
Main Cast
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone (born Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone, July 6, 1946) is an American actor and filmmaker. After his beginnings as a struggling actor for a number of years upon arriving to New York City in 1969 and later Hollywood in 1974, he won his first critical acclaim as an actor for his co-starring role as Stanley Rosiello in The Lords of Flatbush.
He subsequently found gradual work as an extra or side character in films with a sizable budget until he achieved his greatest critical and commercial success as an actor and screenwriter, starting in 1976 with his role as boxer Rocky Balboa, in the first film of the successful Rocky series (1976–present), for which he also wrote the screenplays. In the films, Rocky is portrayed as an underdog boxer who fights numerous brutal opponents, and wins the world heavyweight championship twice.
In 1977, he was the third actor in cinema to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. His film Rocky was inducted into the National Film Registry, and had its props placed in the Smithsonian Museum. His 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 placed permanently near the museum, and he was voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Up until 1982, his films were not big box office successes unless they were Rocky sequels, and none received the critical acclaim achieved with the first Rocky. This changed with the successful action film First Blood in which he portrayed the PTSD-plagued soldier John Rambo. Originally an adaptation of the eponymous novel by David Morell, First Blood’s script was significantly altered by Stallone during the film’s production. He would play the role in a total of five Rambo films (1982–2019). From the mid-1980s through to the late 1990s, he would go on to become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors of that era by appearing in a slew of commercially successful action films which were however generally panned by critics. These include Cobra, Tango and Cash, Cliffhanger, the better received Demolition Man, and The Specialist.
He declined in popularity in the early 2000s but rebounded back to prominence in 2006 with a sixth installment in the Rocky series and 2008 with a fourth in the Rambo series. In the 2010s, he launched The Expendables films series (2010–2014), in which he played the lead as the mercenary Barney Ross. In 2013, he starred in the successful Escape Plan, and acted in its sequels. In 2015, he returned to the Rocky series with Creed, that serve as spin-off films focusing on Adonis "Donnie" Creed played by Michael B. Jordan, the son of the ill-fated boxer Apollo Creed, to whom the long-retired Rocky is a mentor. Reprising the role brought him praise, and his first Golden Globe award for the first Creed, as well as a third Oscar nomination, having been first nominated for the same role 40 years prior.
Carl Weathers (January 14, 1948 – February 2, 2024) was an American actor, director, as well as former professional football player in the United States and Canada. He was best known for playing Apollo Creed in the Rocky series of films. He also played Dillon in the first Predator movie, Chubbs Peterson in Happy Gilmore and Little Nicky, Magistrate Greef Karga in The Mandalorian, and played a fictionalized version of himself in the television series Arrested Development.
Talia Shire, born on April 25, 1946, in Lake Success, New York, is an American actress. She gained widespread recognition for her role as Adrian Pennino, the wife of Rocky Balboa, in the iconic "Rocky" film series. Shire's portrayal of the timid but resilient Adrian earned her acclaim and a place in cinematic history. Beyond "Rocky," she also starred as Connie Corleone in "The Godfather" films, further establishing her as a versatile and talented actress. With a career spanning several decades, Shire's contributions to film have solidified her as a respected figure in Hollywood.
Gerald Tommaso DeLouise (April 30, 1940 – October 8, 2023), known professionally as Burt Young, was an American actor, author, and painter. He played Rocky Balboa's brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino in the Rocky film series, his performance in the first installment of which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Burt Young, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Frank Stallone Jr. is an American actor and musician. He is the younger brother of actor Sylvester Stallone and has written music for Sylvester's movies. His song "Far from Over" appeared in the 1983 film Staying Alive and was included on the film's soundtrack album.
Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (/ˈlʌndɡrən/, Swedish: [ˈdɔlːf ˈlɵ̌nːdɡreːn]; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish-American actor, filmmaker, and martial artist. Born in Spånga, a community in Stockholm County, Sweden, Lundgren became interested in martial arts at a young age. This would lead him to hold the rank of 4th dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and become European champion in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, while studying to get a master's degree, he became the boyfriend of singer Grace Jones. He moved to New York City with her and started taking acting classes. In 1985, Lundgren had a breakthrough role playing the lead villain as an imposing Soviet boxer named Ivan Drago in Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV.
Lundgren went on to play lead roles in over 80 action-orientated films, including Masters of the Universe (1987), Red Scorpion (1988), The Punisher (1989), I Come in Peace (1990), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Joshua Tree (1993), Men of War (1994), Silent Trigger (1996), and Blackjack (1998). He continued playing lead villains in Universal Soldier (1992) against Jean-Claude Van Damme and Johnny Mnemonic (1995) against Keanu Reeves. Moving into the 2000s, Lundgren mostly appeared in direct-to-video films. During this time, Lundgren started directing and starring in his own films; these are The Defender (2004), The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), Icarus (2010), Castle Falls ((2021),and Wanted Man (2024).
Lundgren returned to prominence in 2010 with the role of Gunner Jensen in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables alongside an all-action star cast. He reprised his role in its sequels. He returned to the role of Ivan Drago in Creed II (2018). He also had notable roles in the fifth season of Arrow (2017), James Wan's Aquaman (2018), and Kyle Balda's Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Dolph Lundgren, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
John Guilbert Avildsen (December 21, 1935 – June 16, 2017) was an American film director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1977 for Rocky. Other films he directed include Joe, Save the Tiger, Fore Play, The Formula, Neighbors, For Keeps, Lean on Me, The Power of One, 8 Seconds, Inferno, Rocky V and the first three The Karate Kid films.
Avildsen was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of Ivy (née Guilbert) and Clarence John Avildsen. He was educated at The Hotchkiss School and New York University. After starting out as an assistant director on films by Arthur Penn and Otto Preminger, John Avildsen received his first success with the low budget feature Joe (1970) which received critical acclaim for star Peter Boyle and moderate box office business.
This was followed by another critical success, Save the Tiger (1973), that was nominated for three Oscars, winning Best Actor for star Jack Lemmon. Avildsen's greatest success was Rocky (1976), garnering ten Academy Award nominations and winning three, including Best Picture and Best Director. He later directed what was expected to be the series' final installment, Rocky V (1990). His other films include Cry Uncle! (1971), Neighbors (1981), The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), Lean on Me (1989) and 8 Seconds (1994).
Avildsen was the original director for both Serpico (1973) and Saturday Night Fever (1977), but was fired over disputes with producers Martin Bregman and Robert Stigwood, respectively.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Anthony "Tony" Burton (March 23, 1937 – February 25, 2016) was an American actor, boxer, and football player. He was known for his role as Tony "Duke" Evers in the Rocky franchise. He, Sylvester Stallone and Burt Young are the only actors who have appeared in every Rocky installment (not counting Creed).
Description above from the Wikipedia article Tony Burton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their feature films, such as The Toxic Avenger and Tromeo and Juliet.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Lloyd Kaufman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Milo Anthony Ventimiglia (born July 8, 1977) is an American actor. Making his screen acting debut on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 1995, he portrayed the lead role on the short-lived series Opposite Sex in 2000 before landing his breakthrough role the following year as Jess Mariano on Gilmore Girls (2001–2007).
Thereafter, he appeared as Chris Pierce on American Dreams (2004–2005) and Richard Thorne on The Bedford Diaries (2006) before starring as Peter Petrelli on Heroes (2006–2010), for which he received nominations for Teen Choice, Saturn and People's Choice Awards. After appearing in main roles on the series Mob City (2013), Chosen (2013), and The Whispers (2015), Ventimiglia began starring as Jack Pearson on This Is Us (2016–2022), for which he has received three nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and twice received the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series as a cast member.
In film, Ventimiglia made his breakthrough as Rocky Balboa's son in the sixth installment of the Rocky film series, Rocky Balboa (2006), going on to reprise the role in the eighth installment Creed II (2018). He has also appeared in Pathology (2008), That's My Boy (2012), Kiss of the Damned (2013), Grace of Monaco (2014), Devil's Gate (2017), and The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019).
Irwin Winkler (born May 25, 1931) is an American film producer and director. He is the producer or director of 50 major motion pictures, dating back to 1967's Double Trouble, starring Elvis Presley. The fourth film he produced, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), starring Jane Fonda, was nominated for nine Academy Awards. In 1976, he won an Oscar for Best Picture for Rocky. As a producer, he has been nominated for Best Picture for three other films: Raging Bull, The Right Stuff, and Goodfellas.
Sample some of the best American films over the past forty years and there's a good chance Mike Medavoy played a role in the success of many of them. From agent to studio chief to producer, he has been involved with over 300 feature films, of which 17 have been nominated and 7 have won Best Picture Oscars®, as well as numerous international film festival awards.
Medavoy began his career at Universal Studios in 1964. He rose from the mail room to become a casting director. In 1965, he became an agent at General Artist Corporation and then vice-president at Creative Management Agency. Joining International Famous Agency as vice-president in charge of the motion picture department in 1971, he worked with such prestigious clients as Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Gene Wilder, Jeanne Moreau, and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
