All About Sylvester Stallone's Late Father, Frank Stallone Sr.

The Rocky star's dad, who died in 2011, was a hairdresser, writer and polo player

Sylvester Stallone comes from a family that doesn’t shy away from the camera — his mother was celebrity astrologer Jackie Stallone and his father was Frank Stallone Sr., a hairdresser who followed creative pursuits like writing and acting.

After immigrating to the United States from Italy as a teenager, Frank Sr. lived a colorful life, opening and running a group of hair salons, and being an avid polo enthusiast who played matches near landmarks like the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, according to The Washington Post.

In fact, polo was one way Sylvester and Frank Sr. bonded as both were dedicated players. In 1990, they participated in an exhibition match that Frank Sr. called “the thrill of my life,” per The Washington Post.

In addition to Sylvester, Frank Sr. and Jackie also had another son, Frank Jr. The two divorced in 1957, and Frank Sr. went on to marry three times and welcome three more children until his death on July 11, 2011. He was 91 years old.

Here's everything to know about Sylvester Stallone's dad, Frank Stallone Sr., and his relationship with the actor.

He was born in Italy in 1919

Frank Sr. was born on Sept. 12, 1919, in Gioia del Colle, Italy. As a teenager, he was a sheepherder and rode horses before immigrating to America in the early 1930s at age 13, as reported by The Washington Post.

While living in New York City, Frank Sr. worked as a cobbler and lent his expertise to the Diamond Horseshoe Nightclub, where he fixed heels for showgirls. There, he met his future wife Jackie, who would later become a celebrity astrologer and psychic in Los Angeles and a manager of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) in the 1980s.

He was married four times and had five children

Frank Sr. married Jackie (née Labofish) in 1945, and shortly after, the couple started expanding their family. The husband and wife welcomed their first child together, Sylvester, on July 6, 1946. Their second son, Frank Jr., followed on July 30, 1950, before Frank and Jackie divorced in 1957.

Frank Sr. then wed Rose Marie, and the pair had two kids together: son Bryan and daughter Carla Francesca. After Frank Sr. and Rose Marie divorced, he tied the knot with Sandra, though they didn't welcome any children.

Following their split, Frank Sr. exchanged wedding vows with Kathleen Rhodes in 1997, whom he stayed married to until his death. The couple had a son, Dante Alexander Stallone, born on Jan. 17, 1997.

He was a successful hairdresser

According to his obituary in The Washington Post, Frank Sr. attended hairdressing school in Hell's Kitchen in N.Y.C. In the 1950s, he moved to the Washington D.C. area and eventually opened a chain of salons and beauty schools in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Two of his children are Hollywood stars

Sylvester became an Oscar-winning actor and director, and Frank Jr. has appeared in over 80 films and written music for others.

While trying to break into Hollywood, Sylvester was inspired to write his 1976 sports drama Rocky after watching a match between boxer Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. After it was picked up for production, Sylvester's screenplay was brought to life with him as the titular character.

During the casting process, Sylvester tapped his brother Frank Jr. to play a teenager singing on the street — a collaboration that happened because of the latter's musical skills.

"I was in a group called Valentine and ... we had pretty successful gigs in Jersey,” Frank Jr. told Fox News in 2021. “My brother then calls me and goes, ‘I’m making a boxing movie. Wanna write music for it?’ I said, ‘Well, that’s not really my expertise, writing music for a boxing movie.’ But I said alright."

"Then he goes, ‘I want you to recreate something that you used to do when you were a kid singing on the street corner doing doo-wop,’ " he added.

Since then, the brothers have collaborated on nine films, including Rocky sequels and Staying Alive.

He appeared in Rocky 

Frank Jr. wasn’t the only Stallone featured in Sylvester's first Hollywood movie. Sylvester also cast his father in a small role as the timekeeper.

The Stallone patriarch later appeared in a 1992 episode of The Fifth Corner and a 2015 documentary, The Flag.

He was an avid polo enthusiast

Frank Sr. was one of the first members of the Potomac Polo Club in Poolesville, Maryland, after it was founded in 1957, per The Washington Post. He played the sport for decades and passed his athletic passion onto Sylvester. Frank Sr. also owned a farm in Potomac, and Sylvester grew up horseback riding.

The father-son duo competed in a celebrity exhibition polo match on opposite teams in 1990 at the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in Florida. In the end, it was a win-win situation: Frank Sr.'s team won, and Sylvester was named MVP after making two goals.

His enthusiasm for the sport continued in his later years when he moved to Wellington, Florida, in the mid-1990s.

“He was in the best 90-year-old-man shape,” Scott Swerdlin, president of Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington, told The Palm Beach Post in 2011. “He was a very kind gentleman. A lot of fun. He enjoyed his wife, enjoyed his family. He loved to watch polo."

He wrote a novel

In 2010, at the age of 90, Frank Sr. published Stewart Lane, a novel about a wealthy Washington D.C. couple who moves to the country and encounters unexpected challenges when trying to make their fresh start.

A blurb on the book's cover from singer Connie Francis reads, “Crisp writing and earthy characters make this a read to remember.”

He died in 2011

Frank Sr. died on July 11, 2011, from prostate cancer at age 91. The Stallone patriarch was widely memorialized in Washington, D.C., Palm Beach and Philadelphia newspapers.

"He was a tireless worker, self-motivated," and “fearless man who didn’t back down from anyone,” Frank Jr. told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2011.

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