Sylvester Stallone is a bona fide Hollywood legend, scoring critical praise and awards season success for the Rocky and Creed franchise while becoming a mainstream blockbuster icon with many action roles. Stallone has had a steady career since the 1970s and continues to score hits even as he heads toward his eighties. But, sadly, his on-screen success has been balanced with tragedy in his personal life.

This centers on his eldest son Sage Stallone, who died unexpectedly in 2012 at the age of 36. So, what happened?

Who was Sage Stallone?

Sage Moonblood Stallone was born in 1976 to Sylvester Stallone and Sasha Cazck and went on to study film-making at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Sage appeared alongside his father in Rocky V, where he played Robert Balboa Jr, Rocky’s son. He would also appear in Stallone’s 1996 disaster movie Daylight, as well as horror movies Chaos, Moscow Zero and The Manson Family.

Sage would go on to become a director, making his debut with 2006 short film Vic, for which he won the 2006 Boston Film Festival’s “Best New Filmmaker” award, as well as work in film preservation with a focus on grindhouse/exploitation movies: “dedicated to the restoration and preservation of motion pictures historically held in very low regard.”

In 2007 he married Starlin Wright, but the marriage was annulled in 2008 for unknown reasons. There are reports he was engaged to be married once again at the time of this death, but we don’t know to whom.

Sage Stallone’s death

In July 2012, Sage went missing for four days, and on July 13 he was found dead by his housekeeper in his home in Studio City, Los Angeles. Drug use was suspected and the Los Angeles County Coroner investigated, though confirmed that the cause of death was atherosclerosis, a condition that causes narrowed arteries and which brought on the heart attack that killed him.

No illegal drugs were found in Sage’s body, with the only substance found in his blood “an over-the-counter Tylenol-style pain medication”. Despite this, tabloid gossip ran rampant about illegal drug use being a factor in Sage’s death, causing Stallone to make an emotional public plea:

“This is in reference to the speculation and questionable reporting surrounding the death of my son Sage. Because when a parent loses a child there is no greater pain. Therefore I am imploring people to respect my wonderfully talented son’s memory and feel compassion for his loving mother Sasha, because this agonizing loss will be felt for the rest of our lives. Sage was our first child and the center of our universe and I am humbly begging for all to have my son’s memory and soul left in peace.”

Sage’s funeral took place on July 21 at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Los Angeles and he was buried in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.

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