Frank Stallone, actor's dad, dies at 91

Frank Stallone, an Italian immigrant and prominent Washington-area polo player who owned a chain of beauty salons and was best known as the father of actor Sylvester Stallone, died Monday at his home in Wellington, Fla. He had prostate cancer and was 91.

Stallone moved to the Washington area in the early 1950s and later opened salons and beauty schools in suburban Silver Spring, Md. He was an early member of the Potomac Polo Club in Poolesville, Md., and played matches on the Mall next to the Washington Monument and on the lawn beside the Lincoln Memorial.

In the mid-1990s, he moved to Wellington, the winter home of America's polo elite.

Stallone was known as a rough and fearless player. His ex-wife Jacqueline Stallone said she once saw Stallone punch an ornery horse so hard that the blow knocked the animal down.

He passed on his passion for horseback riding to his oldest son, Sylvester. Stallone and his famous son had an on-again, off-again relationship. He had a bit part as the timekeeper in his son's 1976 movie "Rocky." And although the pair occasionally feuded, they shared an enduring bond through polo.

In 1990, they played on opposing teams in a celebrity exhibition game in Florida. Frank Stallone called the match "the thrill of my life." His team won, 6-5.

Francesco Stallone was born in Gioia del Colle, Italy. He spoke no English when he moved in the early 1930s to New York City from the southeastern mountains of Italy, where he was sheepherder.

An outdoorsman, he rode horses in Italy and briefly served in the U.S. Army cavalry in the early 1940s.

In New York, he was a cobbler, fixing high heels for showgirls at the Diamond Horseshoe nightclub, where he met his future wife Jacqueline, a dancer with Billy Rose's Long-Stemmed Roses.