Sylvester Stallone turns 75 on July 6, 2021. To celebrate, Wonderwall.com is going all the way back to the beginning of an unlikely story: Italian American kid fights his way up from the streets to become a box office superstar. Keep reading to relive Sly’s life and career in photos from “Rocky” to “Rambo” and everything in between…

Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone was born in New York City in 1946 to a hairdresser father and a women’s wrestling promoter mother. Doctors used forceps at his birth and partially paralyzed one side of his face. That trademark drawl so often imitated — “Yo, Adrian!” — has been with him his whole life. Sly — seen here in 1972 — also suffered from other health problems as a child, including rickets.