When Stallone looks back on the Oscar night that changed his life 50 years ago, he counts it as a career pinnacle rivaled only by being recognized in the Kennedy Center Honors last year. For the screenwriter and star of the Best Picture-winning Rocky, that Oscar night was just as surreal and unlikely as his hungry journey from playing the muscle in The Lords of Flatbush to global superstar.
That wound up happening, and after spending so much time studying boxing for his breakout turn, Stallone couldn’t help but wonder if the fix was in.
Others were kinder, including some of the actors he’d grown up loving. Kirk Douglas was effusive in his praise, but this was long before he and Stallone would clash on First Blood (Douglas dropped out of the role of Colonel Sam Trautman after Stallone balked at allowing his Rambo character to be killed by him). Network star William Holden was also encouraging, Stallone recalls. It was a lot to take in.
That would have been asking a lot of a young man with a script about an underdog boxer who suddenly rises up to the world heavyweight championship. It was as unlikely as the underdog path Stallone traveled to get his Rocky script turned into a movie with himself in the titular role. He still shudders when he thinks of the numerous times he could have taken a much-needed payday in exchange for letting go of the Rocky Balboa role. He turned down the telepic deal at ABC his Lords of Flatbush co-star Henry Winkler used his Happy Days clout to get for him. There’s also this story: The studio execs that finally gave the movie the go-ahead with Stallone starring had mistakenly thought he was Perry King, the handsome lead actor from The Lords of Flatbush.
Maybe all that seat-of-the-pants success made him a target for the elite in a shifting Hollywood. At the Oscars that night, Stallone found himself being pummeled by Mr. Blackwell, who was more famous for his Worst Dressed List than his own fashion designs. Blackwell was outraged that Stallone was fashioning himself into a style rebel by breaking tradition and showing up collar open, with no bow tie. But the truth was a little more prosaic.
He took the stage between producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, and they gave Stallone the last word.
Source: deadline.com