Rocky Balboa

The Italian Stallion: Philadelphia's underdog club fighter turned champion.

Rocky Balboa, born Robert Balboa and known in the ring as the Italian Stallion, is the fictional boxer at the centre of the Rocky franchise. Sylvester Stallone created the character and has played him in eight of the series' nine films.

Rocky is a working-class Italian-American from the poor neighbourhoods of Philadelphia who starts out as a club fighter and as a debt collector, an 'enforcer', for a local loan shark, Tony Gazzo. The films follow him as he overcomes the obstacles in his life and in his career as a professional boxer.

Quick Facts

Full name: Robert Balboa
Nickname: The Italian Stallion
Hometown: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Portrayed by: Sylvester Stallone
Wife: Adrian

Facts from the source article.

Background

The story of the first film was partly inspired by the 1975 bout in which underdog Chuck Wepner nearly went the full fifteen rounds against heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, while the name, look and fighting style came from Rocky Marciano, the fighter Rocky idolises as a boy. Raised in a Roman Catholic family in Philadelphia, he understands Italian when his priest, Father Carmine, speaks it to him, and he takes up boxing after his father tells him he was not born with much of a brain and had better use his body.

The role made Stallone's career and earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for the first film. Playing Rocky again in Creed (2015), he won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor and received another Oscar nomination.