He may have knocked out a win for the Oscar’s Best Picture award in his 1976 debut film Rocky, but prior to that Sylvester Stallone tried to get his start in another blockbuster movie. The mother of all gangster films, The Godfather. According to the Rambo star:

I went to Paramount, and said, ‘Can I be an extra in the wedding scene?’ They said, ‘Yeah, we don’t know if you’re the type of guy.’ I go, ‘I’m not the type? To play in the background, hiding behind a f*****g wedding cake?’’

His attempt to merely fade into the background amongst other wedding attendees as the FBI sat parked outside keeping a keen eye on the invited guests did not go well. Paramount simply didn’t think the son of an Italian father was a good fit for the gangster flick whose fictional head, Don Corleone, had strong roots tied to the old country.

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The Godfather Was Not Meant to Be, but Success Came a Short Time Later

Sylvester Stallone as Samaritan in the Amazon Prime Video movie Samaritan
Amazon Studios

After seeing boxer Chuck Wepner moving forward and fighting despite Muhammad Ali's blows in the March 24, 1975, fight, Stallone knew that would be the makings of a great movie. Producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff offered Stallone $350,000 for his script with a deal being made as long as he was allowed to play the lead. Three years after being dealt that blow by Paramount, Rocky Balboa shows up on the big screen and ends up being the highest-grossing film of 1976.

Now, Stallone is finally getting his “gangster shot” thanks to another Paramount property, Paramount+ series Tulsa King created by “Yellowstone” showrunner Taylor Sheridan wherein he plays a New York mob capo, Dwight “The General” Manfredi in the series. Tulsa King follows "The General" after he is released from prison and is unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a crew from a group of unlikely characters to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.

Stallone stated, adding that Sheridan had in mind a “gangster going West” for the show concept.

“Everything comes to those who wait. He’s very hung up on the Western, but how does it manifest itself across the country? OK, take a gangster and put them right next to a cactus, and let the fun begin.”

The series also stars Annabella Sciorra, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, Jay Will, A.C. Peterson, Garrett Hedlund, and Dana Delany.