10 Incredible Against-All-Odds Hollywood Comebacks

7. Sylvester Stallone

Sylvester Stallone demonstrated incredible willpower when he refused to sell the Rocky script to United Artists unless he was allowed to play the title character himself. It was a shrewd move by Stallone, as the film was a box-office smash and it shot the once-struggling actor to superstardom. The Downfall: After the overwhelming success of Rocky and First Blood, Stallone became a franchise man. In between directing, writing and starring in the Rambo and Rocky films, he made other action films like Cobra and Over The Top to varying degrees of success. Not content with just being an action star, Stallone tried his hand at musical comedy with the Dolly Parton vehicle Rhinestone. It was not a success. Not learning from this experience, Stallone appeared in the seriously unfunny Oscar and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot in 1991 and '92 respectively. They were disasters for the quickly-fading Stallone. His performances were panned and the box-office numbers were painful. What Brought Him Back: Stallone tried to get things back on track with yet more action fare but critics began to ask the question: just what had happened to Sylvester Stallone the actor? While the big budget action films made him money, Stallone was a frequent Razzie nominee. He reminded everyone that he did still have acting talent when he appeared in James Mangold's modest 1997 crime drama Cop Land. Stallone didn't look out of place next to respected thespians Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Ray Liotta. In fact, most of the positive reviews centred around Stallone's understated performance and he won a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. Did It Last: After gaining forty pounds and shedding his stardom for Cop Land, it was back to business as usual for Sly. He returned to the big budget action films and thrillers that he had made his name in and eventually revived the Rocky and Rambo franchises once again.