Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#61
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Sylvester Stallone represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 56 years in, and Sylvester is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Sylvester Stallone appears in 74 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Sylvester. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the clearest case: a film rated 8.1 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for drama, documentary, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Morgan Neville, James Gunn, Thom Zimny and others, Sylvester Stallone helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) as Stakar Ogord · Undisputed (2024) as Self · Rocky (1976) as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Career snapshot
Ranked #61 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
74
1970–2026
Career length
56 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.1
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Average Nutevio score
6.3
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.0
Undisputed
Most frequent director
Sylvester Stallone
8 films together
Longest collaboration
8×
With Sylvester Stallone
Most common genre
Action
41 titles
Average runtime
1h 40m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.1
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.8
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
6.8 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. Rocky II, F.I.S.T., Paradise Alley — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
6.8
Across 11 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
6.8
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Rocky II, F.I.S.T., Paradise Alley.
Most productive era
2020s
17 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.88 films | 6.97 films | 6.32 films | 6.02 films | 7.03 films | 0.01 film |
| Action | 6.23 films | 6.78 films | 6.38 films | 5.74 films | 6.212 films | 6.66 films |
| Thriller | 6.63 films | 6.77 films | 6.45 films | 6.22 films | 5.99 films | 5.73 films |
| Comedy | 6.74 films | 6.61 film | 6.44 films | 5.42 films | 6.03 films | 7.51 film |
| Crime | 6.74 films | 6.54 films | 6.73 films | 5.72 films | 5.34 films | 5.93 films |
| Romance | 6.82 films | 6.11 film | — | — | 5.51 film | — |
| Horror | — | — | — | 5.61 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1970M*A*S*H
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Soldier (uncredited).
Career peak
1976Rocky
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Highest rated performance
2023Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
8.1 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Most recent film
2026Taming The Beast
The current state of the argument, as Self.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
74 of 74 films
as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Directed by John G. Avildsen
as Narrator/Self (archive footage)
Directed by Derek Wayne Johnson
as John Rambo
Directed by Ted Kotcheff
as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Directed by Sylvester Stallone
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Rocky (1976)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Robert 'Rocky' Balboa gives Sylvester Stallone a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Narrator/Self (archive footage)
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020)
Performance score8.1
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Narrator/Self (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
John Rambo
First Blood (1982)
Performance score8.1
First Blood asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. John Rambo is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Rocky II (1979)
Performance score7.9
Rocky II asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Robert 'Rocky' Balboa is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
Start here. Rocky is the clearest statement of what Sylvester Stallone does — accessible, 120 minutes, and rated 7.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Sylvester at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Rocky II (1979)
Keeps the drama register of Rocky but asks for a colder reading of it.
First Blood (1982)
Keeps the drama register of Rocky II but asks for a colder reading of it.
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic (2020)
A deliberate change of key after First Blood — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Undisputed (2024)
Keeps the documentary register of 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Sylvester Stallone
Director
8 films together
Notably Rocky II
James Gunn
Director
3 films together
Notably Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
George P. Cosmatos
Director
2 films together
Notably Rambo: First Blood Part II
John G. Avildsen
Director
2 films together
Notably Rocky
Renny Harlin
Director
2 films together
Notably Cliffhanger
John Herzfeld
Director
2 films together
Notably The Making of 'Rocky vs. Drago'
Derek Wayne Johnson
Director
2 films together
Notably 40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a Classic
Robert Altman
Director
1 film together
Notably M*A*S*H
Alan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together
Notably Klute
Woody Allen
Director
1 film together
Notably Bananas
Peter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together
Notably What's Up, Doc?
Dick Richards
Director
1 film together
Notably Farewell, My Lovely
Richard Fleischer
Director
1 film together
Notably Mandingo
Paul Bartel
Director
1 film together
Notably Death Race 2000
Norman Jewison
Director
1 film together
Notably F.I.S.T.
Bruce Malmuth
Director
1 film together
Notably Nighthawks
John Huston
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape to Victory
Ted Kotcheff
Director
1 film together
Notably First Blood
Menahem Golan
Director
1 film together
Notably Over the Top
Peter MacDonald
Director
1 film together
Notably Rambo III
John Flynn
Director
1 film together
Notably Lock Up
Andrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together
Notably Tango & Cash
John Landis
Director
1 film together
Notably Oscar
Roger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together
Notably Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
Marco Brambilla
Director
1 film together
Notably Demolition Man
Luis Llosa
Director
1 film together
Notably The Specialist
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Assassins
Danny Cannon
Director
1 film together
Notably Judge Dredd
Rob Cohen
Director
1 film together
Notably Daylight
James Mangold
Director
1 film together
Notably Cop Land
Barry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably Men in Black
Eric Darnell
Director
1 film together
Notably Antz
Jim Gillespie
Director
1 film together
Notably D-Tox
Robert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together
Notably Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Frank Coraci
Director
1 film together
Notably Zookeeper
Walter Hill
Director
1 film together
Notably Bullet to the Head
Simon West
Director
1 film together
Notably The Expendables 2
Mikael Håfström
Director
1 film together
Notably Escape Plan
Peter Segal
Director
1 film together
Notably Grudge Match
Patrick Hughes
Director
1 film together
Notably The Expendables 3
Ryan Coogler
Director
1 film together
Notably Creed
Tony Bancroft
Director
1 film together
Notably Animal Crackers
Steven Caple Jr.
Director
1 film together
Notably Creed II
Adrian Grünberg
Director
1 film together
Notably Rambo: Last Blood
Brad Baruh
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Thom Zimny
Director
1 film together
Notably Sly
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakdown: 1975
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Sylvester Stallone
Director
8 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 8 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Rocky IIJames Gunn
Director
3 films together · 7.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 3 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3John G. Avildsen
Director
2 films together · 6.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
RockyDerek Wayne Johnson
Director
2 films together · 6.7 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
40 Years of Rocky: The Birth of a ClassicGeorge P. Cosmatos
Director
2 films together · 6.5 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
Rambo: First Blood Part IIRenny Harlin
Director
2 films together · 5.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
CliffhangerJohn Herzfeld
Director
2 films together · 5.6 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Making of 'Rocky vs. Drago'Ted Kotcheff
Director
1 film together · 7.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
First BloodRyan Coogler
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CreedBarry Sonnenfeld
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Men in BlackThom Zimny
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
SlySteven Caple Jr.
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Creed IIPeter Bogdanovich
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
What's Up, Doc?Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakdown: 1975Robert Altman
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
M*A*S*HJames Mangold
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Cop LandMarco Brambilla
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Demolition ManJohn Flynn
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Lock UpJohn Huston
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape to VictoryAlan J. Pakula
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
KluteMikael Håfström
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Escape PlanAndrei Konchalovsky
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Tango & CashDick Richards
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Farewell, My LovelyWoody Allen
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
BananasAdrian Grünberg
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rambo: Last BloodRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AssassinsMenahem Golan
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Over the TopNorman Jewison
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
F.I.S.T.Richard Fleischer
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MandingoBrad Baruh
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Tony Bancroft
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Animal CrackersSimon West
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Expendables 2John Landis
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
OscarPeter MacDonald
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Rambo IIIBruce Malmuth
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NighthawksEric Darnell
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
AntzPaul Bartel
Director
1 film together · 6.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Death Race 2000Patrick Hughes
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Expendables 3Peter Segal
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Grudge MatchRob Cohen
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
DaylightDanny Cannon
Director
1 film together · 6.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Judge DreddLuis Llosa
Director
1 film together · 6.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The SpecialistWalter Hill
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bullet to the HeadJim Gillespie
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
D-ToxFrank Coraci
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ZookeeperRoger Spottiswoode
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Stop! Or My Mom Will ShootRobert Rodriguez
Director
1 film together · 5.1 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Spy Kids 3-D: Game OverSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
as Stakar Ogord
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Mandingo
as Lynching Witness (uncredited)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Rocky
as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Men in Black
as Alien on TV Monitor (uncredited)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Rocky
as Robert 'Rocky' Balboa
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Sylvester Stallone has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
56 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Action Legend
Awarded
41 catalogue titles in action, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
as Stakar Ogord
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
First Blood
as John Rambo
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Staying Alive
as Man on Street (uncredited)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Farewell, My Lovely
as Jonnie
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
as Stakar Ogord
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
as Stakar Ogord
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
M*A*S*H
as Soldier (uncredited)
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Staying Alive
as Man on Street (uncredited)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Tom Hanks
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
Bonnie Hunt
Built a career in the same territory: animation and family
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and adventure
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
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Reference
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