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Actor Sylvester Stallone, 79, walked the red carpet with a cane for the first time, as he attended the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
The “Tulsa King” star, one of this year’s honorees, used a black cane with a gold handle as he posed in a tuxedo alongside his wife Jennifer Flavin, 57.
President Donald Trump, who recently made himself the chairman of the Kennedy Center, hosted the event. The other honorees were Michael Crawford, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and George Strait.
Stallone also used the cane during a medal-presentation ceremony on Saturday.
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It’s unknown why Stallone needed a cane, but he has suffered on-set injuries in the past.
Last year, on his reality show “The Family Stallone,” Sly revealed he never recovered from a stunt on the set of the 2010 action film “The Expendables.”
In the movie, his co-star Steve Austin body slammed him against a stone wall. According to People magazine, Stallone dislocated his shoulders and fractured his neck. His recovery required at least seven back surgeries, and he had to have a metal plate inserted in his neck and spinal fusions.
Sly said on the reality show, “I did stupid stuff. I was directing ‘Expendables’ and, like an idiot, I’m doing take 10, take whatever, and I remember one slam, and I could actually feel one bang.”
He went on, “I never recovered from it. After that film, I was never physically the same. So, I warn people, ‘Don’t do your own stunts.’”
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In 2024, he also opened up in a TMZ special about a horrific injury he suffered just before shooting the 1979 blockbuster “Rocky II.”
Stallone was training with bodybuilder Franco Columbu about six weeks before he was supposed to start shooting the sequel when he tore his pectoral muscle “off the bone.”
He recalled, “So, I go down, and it’s maybe only 200 [lbs]. I’m just warming up, and I hear a POW!’ I fall on the floor. And Franco goes, ‘Let me see.’ He jams his fingers — I’ve torn my pec off the bone. I mean, bad. I could hear it go rip, and he’s jamming his fingers. And I think I’m going to black out.”
Sly switched up the plot and had Rocky fight with his right hand to compensate for the injury.
The director called it “completely illogical,” adding, “But I said, ‘I’m not stopping this movie just for this.’ And this was a bad injury… I switched arms. That was one of the key things. But it’s interesting the way these incredible journeys happen. But we don’t stop, we don’t quit.”