Stallone helped create two of cinema's most enduring heavy-hitting characters - boxer Rocky Balboa and one-man army John Rambo, turning both into a lucrative franchise that established him as one of the biggest stars of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

An Oscar nominated scriptwriter and actor, Stallone's choice of scripts got steadily worse as he appeared in diabolical duds such as 'Stop or my Mom Will Shoot' and 'Judge Dread', but with muscle-rippling turns in the 'Rambo' films and 'The Expendables', he is anything but expendable in action arena.