The action star Sylvester Stallone had financial problems back then. To feed his family, he had to sell his dog. Later, he was able to bring him back but had to fulfill a favor for the new owner.
With the boxing film Rocky, Sylvester Stallone made his international breakthrough in 1977, which made the action actor world-famous. But before his big role, he struggled with financial difficulties.
As Sylvester Stallone shared on September 21, 2019, in The Graham Norton Show, he even had to sell his dog to afford food for his family.
Sylvester Stallone earned 36 dollars per week
The actor had to make do with little money, as he recounted. Back then, the current Hollywood star earned 36 dollars per week.
Despite the tight budget, the actor wanted to have a pet by his side and owned a Bullmastiff named Butkus.
Since 1969, when the dog was just six months old, he had found a home with Sylvester Stallone (via screenrant.com).
However, in 1975, money became so tight that Sylvester Stallone could no longer afford enough food for the dog, his wife, and himself.
At that time, he was trying to sell his script for Rocky but insisted on playing the lead role himself. This made things more difficult.
You can watch the video on YouTube where Sylvester Stallone tells the story:
So the actor decided to part with his loyal companion and sold Butkus while crying, as Express.com reported.
He allegedly went to a liquor store and offered his dog for sale there. He supposedly got 50 dollars for Butkus.
After he secured the Rocky deal and was financially better off, Sylvester Stallone returned to the man he sold his pet to.
However, the new owner initially did not want to return the dog. Then he demanded 3,000 dollars, which the actor did not have.
So the man had another demand: he wanted to appear in the film. “So I included him in the film,” Sylvester Stallone recounted on the talk show.
Which Marvel character Sylvester Stallone would have liked to play, you can read here with our colleagues from Filmstarts.
So the buyer of Butkus got a role in Rocky. At the beginning of the film, he has a short dialogue where the protagonist complains about his aching back, and when the man asks: “Are you deaf?” the man replies: “No, I´m short.”
Butkus also got a role and appeared in the first and second Rocky films. In 1981, the loyal friend of Sylvester Stallone passed away, which is why he was no longer seen in any of the actor’s subsequent films.
Another role was passed to Sylvester Stallone by his greatest action rival:
How Arnold Schwarzenegger outsmarted his arch-rival to direct one of the worst films of all time
