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45 Years Ago, Sylvester Stallone Beats the Odds with 'Rocky'

 


Sylvester Stallone was not born to be a star — which made him the perfect choice to play the titular Rocky Balboa in his breakthrough 1976 film, Rocky.

Prior to making his Oscar-winning blockbuster, Stallone spent years roughing it as a no-name actor in New York, appearing in a handful of low-profile films throughout the early '70s (including the 1970 softcore pornographic film The Party at Kitty and Stud's, which he later called "horrendous"). He first earned critical acclaim by starring alongside Perry King and Henry Winkler in 1974's The Lords of Flatbush, a low-budget drama following four teenage, leather jacket-wearing miscreants around the streets of Brooklyn.

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