In a startling footage from the recently released documentary Sly, Sylvester Stallone disclosed that his father had previously struck him during a polo match.

The legendary actor,77, claimed that his late father Frank Sr. had instilled in him a “certain kind of ferocity.” He also claimed that the shock attack had traumatized him and that he would never want “to see a horse again.”

In his documentary, he stated, “You know, I was raised by a very physical father.” I was used to experiencing severe agony, so I believe it just became a matter of not breaking. You know, whatever he did? Simply put, I won’t break.

The Rambo actor and his brother Frank Jr. provided an unvarnished account of the physical abuse they received from both of their parents.

At the age of thirteen, Sly, who was rated nationally in polo, related an event in which he was participating in the sport and his father started’screaming from the stands’ that he was riding the horse incorrectly.

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Shocking: Sylvester Stallone has revealed his father once attacked him during a polo match in a shock clip from new documentary Sly (pictured playing polo in 1989)

‘And finally I pulled the horse up to get ready for another throw, and he comes out of the stands, grabs me by the throat, throws me on the ground, takes the horse and walks off the field,’ the screen star remembered. ‘And I laid there and I went: “I never wanna see a horse again in my whole life.”‘

Sly was born in 1946 at New York City charity ward to Frank Sr. and Jackie Stallone, a working class couple locked in a bitterly fractious marriage.

Jackie, who later achieved cult fame as an astrologer, was at that time employed as a cigarette girl and was her family’s principal breadwinner.

Meanwhile Frank Sr. was in the grip of professional frustration as a barber attempting to work his way up the rungs to the higher-earning position of cosmetologist.

‘Our father was also very self-conscious ‘cause I don’t think he was educated,’ explained Frank Jr. ‘Any kind of slight or insult would like, he’d go off.’

He added that Jackie, who died in 2020 at the age of 98, ‘was pretty bad too. She was pretty handy with the old hairbrush and the shower brush, and she had these long nails that would never break. She’d go: “Come here, you.”‘

Sly took a gentler tone apropos his mother, describing her as ‘quite eccentric, colorful, very, very, very outspoken and unpredictable.’

The legendary action star then candidly acknowledged: ‘I know I’ve got a certain kind of ferocity from my father, no question.’

‘Our mother and father, it was like clockwork. I’d be up in bed and you’d just hear them screaming and yelling,’ said Frank Jr. ‘And I was petrified, ‘cause I mean, I could just feel the reverberation.’

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Looking back: ‘I was raised by a very physical father, you know?’ he said in his documentary. ‘So I was no stranger to serious pain, and I think it just became, I’m not gonna break. No matter what he did, you know? I’m just not gonna break’

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Quartet: The Rambo star and his brother Frank Jr. offered an unfiltered view of the corporal punishment they were subjected to by their parents Frank Sr. and Jackie; all four are pictured

Jackie and Frank Sr. were so hopelessly caught up in their grueling work lives and their crumbling marriage that their children fell to lower priority status. 

‘The majority of the time, I was living in a boarding house,’ said Sly, describing his early childhood years in New York. ‘Basically 12 months a year, never went home, ‘cause they just didn’t have time. They were both working.’

And people say: “Oh, you feel deprived and you weren’t nurtured.” I thought, yeah, that’s true, and maybe the nurturing comes from the respect and love of strangers. To feel embraced and loved by an audience, it’s insatiable.’

In spite of a staggeringly successful performing career that has lasted decades, Sly said ruefully: ‘I wish I could get over it…but you can’t.’

When Sly was five years old, the family moved to Maryland, where Frank Sr. felt he would have more professional opportunities than in New York.

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Family history: Frank Sr. and Jackie Stallone, a working-class couple trapped in an extremely tumultuous marriage, gave birth to Sly in a New York City charity ward in 1946.

But, the marriage was already on the edge of disintegrating at that point, and Jackie left her husband shortly after moving to Maryland.

Following a contentious divorce, it was agreed that Sly would stay in the rural areas of Maryland with his father, while Frank Jr. would reside in Philadelphia with his mother. 

There were simply horses, total solitude, and a vast expanse of countryside with crickets, Sly remarked. Since I was five or six years old, I’ve had a connection to horses for unknown reasons. Just horses my father would buy for $20 or $25, not nice horses.

Sly claimed that although Frank Jr. “didn’t have much money, he somehow got involved with a polo team, and everyone in polo had great ranches, beautiful horses, and trailers.” It was a dump for us. The majority of the horses suffered from health issues. Some of them would go blind if you pulled them up too soon.

Undeterred, Sly picked up polo, but it was low-level, like sandlot polo. However, I did learn. Nevertheless, I began to improve steadily, and at the age of 13, I began to receive rankings. I will receive a national ranking.

Frank Jr. “wasn’t liking that so much” after witnessing his son’s success, which is why the throat-grabbing event occurred during a polo match.