Sylvester Stallone on the fight to make “Rocky”

September 27, 2026 / 10:16 AM EDT / CBS News

Long before he became the most famous cinematic fighter of all time, Sylvester Stallone had to fight his own battle to survive in New York. For example, he was living in places where he literally had pizza boxes for his mattress. "I did, yeah. It was very comfortable," he said.

His jobs also included cleaning the lion cages in the Central Park Zoo. "That's a rough one, because I felt so bad for these magnificent animals," he said, "and then I felt bad because I smelled like them, you know, going home."

As a starving actor in the big city, life was tough, but his upbringing wasn't much easier. Born in New York's Hell's Kitchen 80 years ago, Stallone says his parents sent him away to a boarding house at a very young age. He says he understood. "I almost didn't blame them," he said. "I was very rambunctious."

His parents were not the kind to show affection. "No. I don't think they knew how. There was zero touching," he said.

But Stallone says his hard-knocks childhood was great training for the uphill battle he'd face trying to make the…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/