Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He is well known for his Hollywood action roles, including boxer Rocky Balboa in the Rocky series (1976–2018), soldier John Rambo in the five Rambo films (1982–2019), mercenary Barney Ross in the three The Expendables films (2010–2019) and structure engineer Ray Breslin in the three Escape Plan films (2013–2019). He wrote or co-wrote most of the 16 films in the first three popular franchises and directed many of them.