The uneducated Italian-American Rocky Balboa works as a debt collector for a loan shark in the slums of Philadelphia. While the 30-year-old aspiring boxer is considered too old to become a professional star, his chance comes when the heavyweight boxing world champion Apollo Creed needs a last minute replacement. Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in the 1976 drama that introduced an entire saga.

"Rocky" is also a love story. The boxer falls in love with a pet store employee called Adrian (Talia Shire). His fight to win her heart is at least as thrilling as the action in the boxing ring. A pure sports drama wouldn't have been as uplifting.

In his daily training ritual, Rocky famously climbs the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and raises his arms in a victory pose. The motif is so famous that tourists now copy Rocky's climb when they visit the location also known as the "Rocky Steps." Bill Conti's song "Gonna Fly Now," which accompanies the sequence, is just as iconic and has become a classic at sports events.

Whether fighting against Apollo Creed in the first "Rocky" or Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in "Rocky IV" (picture), every fight is thoroughly choreographed. ''What looked like haphazard throwing of punches was an exact ballet," Stallone once told The New York Times about the final fighting scene in his 1976 film. '''There were 14 pages of left, right, right, left, left hook,'' he said.

While the budget of the first film was of just over $1 million, it unexpectedly became the highest-grossing film of the year when it came out in 1976. It won three Oscars, including for best picture, and Sylvester Stallone obtained two Academy Award nominations, as best actor and for the best original screenplay. The critically-acclaimed hit went on to spawn seven sequels.

Over the last four decades, fans have aged alongside Sylvester Stallone and his famous character. In the seventh and eighth installment of the series, titled "Creed," Rocky Balboa is the trainer of the illegitimate son of the late champion Apollo Creed. "Creed II" will apparently be Stallone's last Rocky movie. "Now you have to carry the mantle," he told the new franchise star, Michael B. Jordan.

After taking bit parts in Hollywood for a few years, Sylvester Stallone was finally cast in "Rocky," for which he also wrote the screenplay. The boxing drama became a tremendous box office success and rocketed Stallone to stardom. Born on July 6, 1946 in New York, the actor perfectly embodies the underdog that challenges the boxing world champ. "Rocky" has since become a classic.

Sylvester Stallone's second major role came six years later. With "Rambo" in 1982, he made cinema history once again. In the film, he plays a traumatized Vietnam War veteran that, back home, is chased by brutal police officers. Stallone appealed in particular to young male viewers, many of whom could identify with aspects of his characters — and loved the action scenes.

The huge success of "Rocky" and "Rambo" overshadows some of Stallone's lesser known performances during that time. In 1981, he played an American military officer, Captain Robert Hatch, who has been captured by the Nazis and tries to escape with a soccer game. The film shows Stallone (blue jersey in the last row) along with world-class soccer stars like Pelé and Bobby Moore.

For many fans of modern American cinema, Stallone's performance as Sheriff Freddy Heflin in the 1997 police film "Cop Land" was the best of his career. Under the direction of John Mangold, Stallone plays a naïve, pudgy law enforcement officer who wears his heart on his sleeve.

Two years after his breakthrough with "Rocky," Sylvester Stallone made his directing debut with the wrestling drama "Paradise Alley" (1978). After that he directed the subsequent Rocky films himself as well. In 1983, he teamed up with John Travolta and directed the sequel to the successful dance film "Saturday Night Fever," "Staying Alive," and gave his brother Frank (pictured) a role.

After Stallone made a name for himself as an action star, he wanted to try his hand at comedies in the 80s. The Hollywood film "Tango & Cash," by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky and co-starring Kurt Russell, was his first chance to mix genres. Both the critiques and the box office revenues were moderate.

With films like "Cliffhanger" and "Demolition Man" (pictured), Sylvester Stallone returned to his true calling: action films. Stallone's career has been marked by numerous ups and downs, box office hits and flops. But one thing has remained constant: His fans have always wanted to see the actor in action — it was always with his bloodiest and sweatiest roles that he's had the most success.

In 2006, Stallone revisited his first big success by making the sixth Rocky film. In "Rocky Balboa," he plays a boxer who's withdrawn from the ring but is pressured into making a comeback. Though he loses his big fight, the aging fighter wins the hearts of the audience.

"The Expendables" was conceived as an homage to the great action films of the 1980s. Stallone directed and co-wrote the film, which is about a group of mercenaries, and took on the lead role as well, in the role of Barney Ross. The 2006 film proved a big hit at the box office and two sequels followed in 2012 and 2014.

The most recent Rocky film, "Creed II," came out in November 2018. In the spin-off films, Stallone left the leads to younger actors and appeared in a supporting role as a boxing coach. That was a good move: he won a Golden Globe for his performance in the 2015 "Creed" movie and is shown here at the awards ceremony with his daughters.

Stallone went to the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 to promote the fifth film in the Rambo franchise. Though it did well at the box office, "Rambo: Last Blood" obtained bad reviews, and was described as indulging "in bloody violence at the expense of its main character's once-poignant story."

Stallone, shown here accepting a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his role in "Creed" in 2016, is not hanging up his gloves as he turns 75. Among other roles, he stars in the upcoming film "Samaritan," described as a dark, new take on superhero movies. There are also plans for a fourth film in the "Expendables" series.