Stallone Gave His Father a Cameo in Rocky, and It Got 'Really Nasty'
Rocky made Sylvester Stallone a star, but there was one person he could not quite turn into a fan. He gave his real father, Frank Stallone Sr., a cameo as the bell ringer, and, according to Deadline, recalled things on set getting "really nasty" afterward.
Stallone was discussing his memoir The Steps, which Deadline says releases October 23, and which Deadline notes comes from a three-time Oscar nominee. Casting a parent in the film that makes your name is a particular kind of gamble: a bell ringer is a small, loud job in the machinery of the movie, and apparently not a peace offering.
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The detail that sticks is the part he handed over: not a scene, not a line, but the bell. A tiny, loud task for the one family member who wasn't won over.
The story may say less about casting than about the awkwardness of directing a parent, and it arrives attached to a memoir's publicity. Family and film sets make a combustible mix either way.