It has come to light in a new documentary about his life and career that Sylvester Stallone recalled being attacked by his father while on horseback during polo matches.
Sly, which is now available to stream on Netflix, details the inspirations and meteoric screen career of the writer-director-star, 77. However, director Thom Zimny doesn’t shy away from Sylvester’s recollections of a troubled childhood, including physical and verbal abuse from his father Frank Stallone Sr., who died in 2011.
“I was raised by a very physical father, so I was no stranger to serious pain,” reveals Sylvester in the documentary via PEOPLE.
Born in Manhattan and raised in rural Maryland following Frank’s divorce from Jackie, mother to Sylvester and his brother Frank Jr., the future Rocky star became nationally ranked in the sport of polo by age 13.
Sylvester claims in the documentary, that his father interrupted “in the middle of a game” to berate him. “I was going for a nearside backhand, and I didn’t do anything wrong — he goes, ‘You’re pulling too hard on the horse!’” he remembers.
“I said, ‘I know what I’m doing.’ He goes, ‘You don’t!’ Screaming from the stands.” Sylvester continues: “I pulled the horse up to get ready for another throw, and [Frank] comes out of the stands, grabs me by the throat, throws me on the ground, takes the horse, and walks off the field.”
He adds, “I laid there and I went, ‘I never want to see a horse again in my whole life.’”
But in that 1989 polo match, which was documented by Entertainment Tonight and other news outlets, Frank again demonstrated violence on the field.
Sylvester recalls how his father “spears me in the back. Hit me so hard, I went down… The horse walked right over, I don’t know how it didn’t kill me.”
Wincing in pain at the memory, Sylvester adds that his first thought after falling off the horse was, “He just rode away.”
He adds that the experience caused him to stop playing the sport for good. “I never played polo again from that moment on. I sold everything, I sold every horse, the ranch, the truck, and that was the end.”
