Matthew McConaughey may be Hollywood's reigning shirtless superstar, but long before he first bared his abs onscreen, Sylvester Stallone had mastered the art of gratuitous torso in each Rocky installment, Rambo film and a number of other action titles. Thirty-five years after his bare-chested breakout role as the Italian Stallion, Stallone returns to the screen this April for a feature called Bullet to the Head, which, again -- amazingly -- features the action icon topless as evidenced by a brand new still. (Don't bother questioning how a shirtless 65-year-old man fits into the narrative -- it just does, guys.) In honor of the actor's impressive history of appearing semi-nude onscreen -- even decades after audiences started shielding their eyes from his grisly old-man muscles -- Movieline salutes Sylvester Stallone's shirtless valor in the photo essay below.
Rip off your top, drape yourself in the nearest American flag and enjoy the views below, then consider Movieline's Shirtless Sylvester Stallone comprehension questions.
Rocky (1976)
Rocky II (1979)
Rocky III (1982)
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Rocky IV (1985)
Rambo III (1988)
Tango & Cash (1989)
Demolition Man (1993)
The Specialist (1994)
Rocky Balboa (2006)
The Expendables (2010)
Bullet to the Head (2012)
Okay, class:
- Which is your favorite shirtless Sylvester Stallone look?
- Which is your least favorite shirtless Sylvester Stallone look? (Or: Which induced the most serious dry heaves?)
- At what point in his career should Sylvester Stallone have put a shirt on?
- Do you think it was a combination of good diet and exercise (slash steroids) that yielded such muscly results? Or just sheer Stalloneness?