All eyes were on Sylvester Stallone as he stepped out with a cane for the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday.
The iconic action star walked onto the red carpet in a sleek black tuxedo, holding a matching black cane topped with a gold-dipped handle as he received the prestigious honor from the storied cultural institution freshly MAGAfied by his pal Donald Trump. He was accompanied by his wife of nearly three decades, Jennifer Flavin, 57.
The 79-year-old was also spotted with a cane 24 hours earlier at the presentation ceremony for the 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees in the Oval Office of the White House.
While the reason for Stallone’s use of the cane is unclear, the Hollywood heavyweight, whose claim to fame was playing legendary boxer Rocky Balboa and fictional war veteran John Rambo, has a long history of injuries from playing tough guys on screen.
Stallone has a torn pectoral muscle and a hairline spinal fracture from the Rocky franchise, as well as several injuries he “never recovered” from when he was thrown against a wall on the set of The Expendables.
Stallone was in his sixties when he was repeatedly hurled by co-star Steve Austin for a fight scene, leading him to dislocate his shoulders, fracture his neck, and injure his back.
“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,” Stallone said on his reality series The Family Stallone last year.
“I never recovered from it. After that film, it was never physically the same,” he said. “So I warn people, ‘Don’t do your own stunts.’”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Stallone’s representatives for comment on his Kennedy Center outing.
Stallone was honored alongside songwriter George Strait, actor Michael Crawford, singer Gloria Gaynor, and rock band KISS—all handpicked by the president, who hosted the annual honors on Sunday night with first lady Melania.
“Some of them have had legendary setbacks, setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame,” Trump said Sunday. “But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward.”
Days before honoring Stallone, however, Trump appeared to forget about his Hollywood buddy as he mused about Tom Cruise being “the last of our movie stars, probably.”
“But, uhh, although we’re honoring Sylvester Stallone in a little while at the Kennedy Center, so I’m going to put him in that same category. We have Sylvester Stallone and Tom Cruise,” Trump later added.
