Trivia: An icon of machismo and Hollywood action heroism, Sylvester Stallone is responsible for creating two characters who have become a part of the American cultural lexicon: Rocky Balboa, the no-name boxer who overcame all odds to become a champion, and John Rambo, the courageous soldier who specialized in violent rescues and revenge. Both characters are reflections of Stallone's personal experiences and the battles he waged during his transition from a poor kid in Hell's Kitchen to one of the world's most popular stars. According to Stallone, his was not a happy childhood. On July 6, 1946, in the aforementioned part of Manhattan, Sylvester Enzio Stallone was born to a chorine and an Italian immigrant. A forceps accident during his birth severed a facial nerve, leaving Stallone with parts of his lip, tongue, and chin paralyzed. In doing so, the accident imprinted Stallone with some of the most recognizable components of his persona: the distinctively slurred (and some say often nearly incomprehensible) speech patterns, drooping lower lip, and crooked left eye that have been eagerly seized upon by caricaturists. To compound these defects, Stallone was a homely, sickly child who once suffered from rickets. His parents were constantly at war and struggling to support Stallone and his younger brother, Frank Stallone (who became a B-movie actor). The elder brother spent most of his first five years in the care of foster homes. Stallone has said that his interest in acting came from his attempts to get attention and affection from those strangers who tried to raise him. When he was five, his parents moved their family to Silver Spring, MD, but once again spent their time bickering and largely ignored their children. Following his parents' divorce in 1957, the 11-year-old Stallone remained with his stern father. The actor's teen years proved even more traumatic. As Stallone seemed willing to do just about anything for attention, however negative, he had already been enrolled in 12 schools and expelled several times for his behavior problems. His grades were dreadful and his classmates picked on him for being different. Stallone coped by becoming a risk taker and developing elaborate fantasies in which he presented himself as a brave hero and champion of the underdog. At age 15, Stallone moved to Philadelphia to be with his mother and her new husband. By this time, he had begun lifting weights and took up fencing, football, and the discus. He also started appearing in school plays. Following graduation, Stallone received an athletic scholarship for the American College of Switzerland. While there he was a girls' athletic coach and in his spare time starred in a school production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. The experience inspired him to become an actor and after returning stateside, he started studying drama at the University of Miami until he decided to move to New York in 1969. While working a variety of odd jobs, Stallone auditioned frequently but only occasionally found stage work, most of which was off-Broadway in shows like the all-nude Score and Rain. He even resorted to appearing in the softcore porn film, Party at Kitty's and Studs, which was later repackaged as The Italian Stallion after Stallone became famous. Stallone's face and even his deep voice were factors in his constant rejection for stage and film roles. He did nab a bit role in Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), but after he was turned down for The Godfather (1971), Stallone became discouraged. Rather than give up, however, Stallone again developed a coping mechanism -- he turned to writing scripts, lots of scripts, some of which were produced. He still auditioned and landed a starring role in Rebel (1973). During his writing phase, he married actress Sasha Czack in late 1974 and they moved to California in the hopes of building acting careers. His first minor success came when he wrote the screenplay for and co-starred in the nostalgic Lords of Flatbush (1974) with Henry Winkler. The film's modest success resulted in Stallone's getting larger roles, but he still didn't attract much notice until he penned the screenplay for Rocky. The story was strong and well written and studios were eager to buy the rights, but Stallone stipulated that he would be the star and must receive a share of the profits. Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff accepted Stallone's terms and Rocky (1976) went on to become one of the biggest movie hits of all time. It also won several Oscars including ones for Best Picture, Best Director for John Avildsen, and a Best Actor nomination for Stallone. Suddenly Stallone found himself on Hollywood's A-list, a status he has largely maintained over the years. In addition to writing four sequels to Rocky, he penned three Rambo films (First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo 3) and F.I.S.T. (1979). Stallone made his directorial debut with Paradise Alley, which he filmed in Hell's Kitchen. He also wrote and directed but did not appear in the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, Staying Alive (1983). In addition, Stallone has continued to appear in the films of other directors, notably Demolition Man (1993), Judge Dredd (1995), and Copland (1997), a film in which he allowed himself to gain 30 pounds in order to more accurately portray an aging sheriff. Occasionally, Stallone has ventured out of the action genre and into lighter fare with such embarrassing efforts as Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) and Oscar (1991), which did not fare well at the box office. Following these missteps, Stallone found greater success with the animated adventure Antz (1998), a film in which his very distinctive voice, if not his very distinctive physique, was very much a part. Stallone was back in shape for the 2000 remake of Get Carter and hit the race tracks in the following year in the CART racing thriller Driven. Though the early 2000s found his career sputtering along with such forgettable duds as D-Tox and Avenging Angelo, Stallone took his career into his own hands by returning to the director's chair to resurrect two of his most iconic characters. Lacing his boxing gloves up once again for Rocky Balboa, the veteran action star proved he still had some fight left in him, and venturing into the jungles of Burma as John Rambo just two years later, he proved that hard "R" action could still sell in the era where most filmmakers were playing it "PG-13"safe. That trend continued with Stallone's all-star action opus The Expendables in 2010, with the success of that film leading to a sequel (with Simon West taking over directorial duties) featuring even more action icons in 2012. Incredibly, not even a broken neck suffered during production of The Expendables proved capable of slowing Stallone down, and 2013 found him teaming with Walter Hill for Bullet to the Head -- which followed a cop and a killer as they teamed up to take down a mutual enemy. In 2015, Stallone returned to Rocky Balboa once more, but this time as a supporting character in the spin-off film Creed. He earned rave reviews and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, making him only the sixth performer to be nominated for playing the same character in two separate films.

Trivia: Talia Shire (born Talia Coppola) attended the Yale School of Drama and landed roles in several Roger Corman films. The sister of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, she benefited from her family connection when she was cast in The Godfather (1972), launching her screen career in earnest. After receiving a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in The Godfather Part II (1974), Shire was cast by Sylvester Stallone to play his girlfriend in the hit Rocky (1976), for which she won the New York Film Critics Award and received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Although Shire went on to appear in a number of films throughout the 1980s and '90s, her career primarily revolved around the eight films emerging from the original Godfather and Rocky movies. Divorced from composer David Shire, she later married producer Jack Schwartzman; the two of them developed movie projects together, forming the TaliaFilm production company. The mother of actors Jason Schwartzman and Robert Schwartzman, Shire directed the film One Night Stand in 1994.She continued to act in a number of films including The Landlady, Lured Innocence, and Kiss the Bride. In 2004 she was cast in I Heart Huckabees playing the mother of the character portrayed by her real life son Jason Schwartzman. She appeared thanks to archival footage in Rocky Balboa. She also appeared in a pair of National Lampoon comedies.

Trivia: A former prizefighter, Burt Young opted for a less injurious profession when he began taking acting lessons from Lee Strasberg. In films from 1971, Young reached a career pinnacle as Rocky Balboa's (Sylvester Stallone) contentious brother Paulie in the 1975 megahit Rocky. He earned one of the film's ten Oscar nominations, and went on to reprise the role in all four Rocky sequels. Young's subsequent film and TV work has been largely confined to pug-like supporting roles, though he did star in the 1978 TV movie Uncle Joe Shannon, which he also scripted. Additional Burt Young credits include the Broadway play Cuba and His Teddy Bear and the role of ex-marine collegiate Nick Chase in the TV sitcom Roomies (1987).

Trivia: A football star at San Diego State, Carl Weathers played professionally with the Oakland Raiders, acting in local stage productions during the off-season. Weathers went on to play with the British Columbia Lions in the Canadian Football League, then retired from sports in 1974, the better to devote all his time to an acting career. After yeoman service in a handful of "blaxploitation" flicks, he rose to fame as the Muhammad Ali-inspired Apollo Creed in the first Rocky film. Apollo Creed's adversarial relationship with Rocky Balboa mellowed into warm friendship in the course of the next three Rocky installments; indeed, when Apollo was killed off by "superboxer" Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (1985), the tragedy served as the motivation for the retired Rocky to climb into the ring yet once more. Weathers' post-Rocky projects have included the title role in Action Jackson (1988), the Sidney Poitier part in the 1985 TV-movie remake of The Defiant Ones, and the TV series Fortune Dane, Street Justice and Tour of Duty. In the early 1990s, Weathers replaced Howard Rollins Jr. in a group of In the Heat of the Night 2-hour TV specials. He developed a knack for comedy later in his career, appearing in Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, and making a particularly memorable cameo in the sitcom Arrested Development as a stew-obsessed acting coach. In addition to his show business work, Carl Weathers has been active with the Big Brothers Association and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Trivia: Originally a newspaper reporter, Burgess Meredith came to the screen in 1936, repeating his stage role in Winterset, a part written for him by Maxwell Anderson. Meredith has had a long and varied film career, playing everything from George in Of Mice and Men (1939) to Sylvester Stallone's trainer in Rocky (1976). He received Oscar nominations for The Day of the Locust (1975) and Rocky. As comfortable with comedy as with drama, Meredith also appeared in Idiot's Delight (1939); Second Chorus (1940), with Fred Astaire; Diary of a Chambermaid (1942), which he also wrote and produced; The Story of G.I. Joe (1945); and Mine Own Executioner (1947). He also directed Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949). On television, he made countless guest appearances in dozens of dramatic and variety productions, including one of the first episodes of The Twilight Zone, the touching Time Enough at Last, and as host on the first episode of Your Show of Shows. He was a regular on Mr. Novak (1963-64) and Search (1972-73), hosted Those Amazing Animals (1981), co-starred with Sally Struthers in Gloria (1982-83), and made classic appearances as the Penguin on Batman (1966-68). He won an Emmy in 1977 for Tailgunner Joe and has done voiceover work for innumerable commercials, notably Volkswagen. Meredith made his final feature film appearance playing crusty Grandpa Gustafson in Grumpier Old Men (1995), the sequel to Grumpy Old Men (1993) in which he also appeared. In 1996, he played a role in the CD-rom video game Ripper. He was briefly married to Paulette Goddard in the 1940s. Meredith died in his Malibu home at the age of 88 on September 9, 1997.

Trivia: Actor Thayer David did quite well for himself on stage, screen and television. By virtue of his prominent eyebrows and chin and his brutish frame, David tended to be typecast as villains, notably as the odious Count Sacnusson in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), the shadowy arsonist in Save the Tiger (1973) and the untrustworthy boxing promoter in Rocky (1976). But in 1977, David was on the verge of TV hero-dom, thanks to an excellent showing in the title role in the 90-minute pilot film Meet Nero Wolfe. Alas, he died of a heart attack before the pilot could be spun off into a series. Thayer David was at one time married to actress Valerie French.

Trivia: Joe Spinell had the sort of face that you wouldn't want to confront in a dark alley -- which suited the actor fine. From his first film appearance in The Godfather (1972) onward, the powerfully built Spinell thrived in roles calling for heavy-breathing menace and brute strength. As such, he was the ideal "opposite" for the musclebound Sylvester Stallone in such films as Rocky (1975) and Paradise Alley (1978). Taking advantage of his established screen persona, Spinell produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 1980 scarefest Maniac, which one observer described as "nihilistic gore." Joe Spinell was the son of actress Mary Spinell, who had some 50 film appearances to her credit -- including the aforementioned Godfather.

Trivia: Lloyd Kaufman is many things: producer, director, screenwriter, editor, composer, actor, and, above all, a renegade fighting against the further conglomeration and homogenization of Hollywood. Kaufman is president and co-founder of Troma Entertainment, one of the last bastions of independent, low-budget exploitation films, the kind that bear titles such as Class of Nuke 'Em High (1986) and Stuff Stephanie in the Incinerator (1989). Often graphically violent, gory, sophomoric, deliberately un-PC, and seemingly aimed at audiences comprised of certain kinds of teenaged boys, Troma films are also free-spirited and often filmed with their tongues lodged firmly in their cheeks. Kaufman entered the film business after studying filmmaking. While in school, he started making low-budget films. He and long-time business partner Michael Herz launched Troma as a distribution company in the late '70s. It has since grown to include a production company, a merchandising outlet, and in the late '90s, a cable-television network. One of Kaufman's best-known and best-loved cult films is Toxic Avenger (1986), the bloody and terribly violent chronicle of a Long Island nerd's revenge against the townsfolk who tormented him. As a director, Kaufman occasionally uses the names Sam Weill and Louis Su. In the late '90s, he recounted his experiences and offered advice for other young independent filmmakers in his book All I Need to Know About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger.

Trivia: Spent early years on a farm in Beaufort, SC, where his father was a farm worker and moonshiner. Spent three years an amateur boxer with only one defeat. Made 1964 U.S. Olympic team as an alternate, but when a fighter was injured, he stepped in and won the only U.S. gold medal. Turned pro in 1965. Became heavyweight champion by defeating Jimmy Ellis in 1970 and was dethroned by George Foreman in 1973. Beat Muhammad Ali in 1971 in the Fight of the Century, the first of their three meetings. Ali would go on to win in 1974, and in the Thrilla in Manila in 1975. Was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1989, and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Owned a gym in Philadelphia, and trained son Marvis—a heavyweight contender. Toured with a band as Smokin' Joe Frazier and the Knockouts. Released an autobiography in 1996: Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography. Was diagnosed with liver cancer in September 2011.

Trivia: Not to be confused with Billy Baldwin of the Baldwin brothers' fame, Bill Baldwin is much more recognizable to the ear than he is to the eye. Despite landing a slew of small supporting roles between the early '50s and the year of his death, 1982, Baldwin's career revolved around his strong, carrying voice. In 1956, Baldwin played a fight announcer in The Leather Saint, an unremarkable prizefighting drama that nonetheless foreshadowed his most famous vocal role: that of the ringside announcer in Rocky (1976), nearly 20 years later. Baldwin's voice could also be heard in Rocky II and III, as it could in fellow boxing films The Champ (1979) and Goldie and the Boxer Go to Hollywood (1981). When he wasn't offering play-by-plays, Baldwin was likely immersed in the role of radio announcer for a variety of showbiz dramas and television programs, among them With a Song in My Heart (1952), The One and Only (1978), and a long stint on The Beverly Hillbillies. Interestingly enough, one of his non-voice-related performances was a bit part in a film as acclaimed as Rocky: Baldwin appeared briefly as a salesman in Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Trivia: Rotund supporting actor, onscreen from the '70s.

Trivia: The son of vaudeville and burlesque performers, George O'Hanlon made his own stage bow as a dancer at age 16 -- only to be fired after a few weeks over a salary dispute. O'Hanlon made the rounds in summer stock and burlesque, then registered with Hollywood's Central Casting as a film extra in the early '30s. While hoofing away in the choruses of many a Warner Bros. musical, O'Hanlon took acting lessons at the Bliss-Hayden theater in Beverly Hills. His big break came when he was hired by fledgling director Richard Bare for a U.S.C.-subsidized short subject, So You Want to Give Up Smoking (1942). After the war, O'Hanlon and Bare teamed for a series of shorts for Warners release; informally titled Behind the Eight Ball, these one-reel gems starred O'Hanlon as benighted "everyman" Joe McDoakes. This popular series ran from 1946 through 1955, amassing a total of 56 entries, three of which were nominated for Academy Awards. Outside of his McDoakes assignments, O'Hanlon appeared as Gillis in 45 episodes of the 1950s TV sitcom The Life of Riley, and also wrote and directed several installments of such TV weeklies as The Roaring 20s, 77 Sunset Strip, and Petticoat Junction. He played supporting roles in films like The Hucksters (1946), The Tanks are Coming (1951), and Kronos (1957), and directed the 1959 Tommy Noonan/Pete Marshall vehicle The Rookies. Children of the 1960s will remember George O'Hanlon as the voice of George Jetson on the Hanna-Barbera prime-time cartoon series The Jetsons.

Trivia: Stan Shaw played "Big George" in Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), a none-too-surprising casting choice as the towering African American actor could never, ever play "little" anyone. Shaw's first film role was baseball player Esquire Joe, a Jackie Robinson type, in The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings (1976). Interestingly enough, when the TNT cable service produced The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson in 1990, Shaw was cast as yet another barrier-breaking sports icon, boxer Joe Louis. Stan Shaw's other TV credits include the part of lawyer Lafayette Tate on the 1983 series The Mississippi and guest-starring roles on such series as Murder, She Wrote, L.A. Law and Starsky and Hutch. Shaw's theater work includes an NAACP Image Award winning performance in Home.

Trivia: American actor Simmy Bow played small character roles in a number of popular films during the '70s and '80s. He died in 1987 shortly after appearing in Beetlejuice.

Trivia: Like most of the Stallone family, Frank Stallone made his film debut in brother Sylvester Stallone's Rocky (1976). Considerably more talented than many celebrity siblings, Frank was an accomplished singer and musician. Many of his compositions made their way into such subsequent Sly Stallone efforts as Rocky II, Paradise Alley and Staying Alive. Stallone has since found steady work as a supporting actor in films like Hudson Hawk (1992) and Tombstone (1993). By accident or design, Stallone has co-starred with actress Brenda Vaccaro three times, most recently in 1989's Masque of the Red Death. One of Frank Stallone's better recent roles was Alvin Karpis in 1995's Public Enemy #1.

Trivia: From a scene with Charlie Chaplin to a bit part with Elvis Presley to a familiar role as a butler in Madonna's Who's That Girl, Arthur Roland Tovey's career spanned much of the 20th century, during which he worked with some of its biggest stars. Tovey made his film debut in the 1922 Marion Davies feature Yolanda. A longtime Hollywood extra and bit actor, Tovey also doubled for Leslie Howard in the classic Gone With the Wind. In addition to his career as an actor, Tovey was a longtime member of the Musicians Local 47 and the Screen Actors Guild, and also served in the U.S. Army during WWII. In recent years, he made the most of his appearances on television, appearing on programs such as ER and Married With Children until well into his nineties. Arthur Roland Tovey died of natural causes at his home in Van Nuys, CA, on October 20, 2000. He was 95.

Trivia: American utility actor John Pleshette has been seen on screen since 1970. Pleshette's first regular TV role was Dr. Danvers in the 1975 series Doctor's Hospital. One of his handful of starring assignments was the title character in the speculative TV movie The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978). Knot's Landing fans will remember Pleshette as arrogant, duplicitous attorney Richard Avery, a role he filled from 1979 to 1983. John Pleshette is no relation to actress Suzanne Pleshette.

Trivia: Actor George O'Hanlon Jr. made his screen debut in the 1974 television movie Our Time and his feature-film debut in The Evil (1978). His father was a noted character actor.

Trivia: A successful screen actress in addition to her work as a prominent public relation executive, Shirley O'Hara Krims found fame on the silver screen with a series of films in the '30s and '40s before redefining her career in the '70s. Born in Rochester, MN, Krims was quickly signed to RKO after relocating to Hollywood at the tender age of 18. Her early appearances came in such films as Tarzan and the Amazons (1945) and the film that provided Frank Sinatra with his first feature role, Higher and Higher (1944). An avid supporter of American soldiers during World War II, Betty Davis presented Krims with a Support for America award for her work with the USO's Hollywood Canteen. After turning toward television in the '50s and '60s, Krims became the public relations director for Burbank Studios (later acquired by Warner Bros.). Krims was also a noted philanthropist, and through the Publicists Guild, the former actress supported such organizations as Operation Children. Married to Jimmy McHugh Jr. early in life, Krims would later wed Oscar-nominated screenwriter Milton Krims. In late December of 2002, Shirley O'Hara Krims died from complications of diabetes in Calabasas, CA. She was 78.