In the mid-1970s, a struggling actor named Sylvester Stallone was broke enough that he spent several nights sleeping at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York. Unable to afford food for his dog, a bull mastiff named Butkus, he sold him to a stranger outside a liquor store for $50.
Around the same time, Stallone wrote the script for Rocky in roughly three and a half days, reportedly inspired by watching a little-known boxer named Chuck Wepner go 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali. Studios offered him large sums for the script on the condition that someone else play the lead — offers he turned down, insisting on starring in it himself despite having almost no money.
United Artists agreed to let him star in the film on a modest budget. Once he got his first paycheck, Stallone tracked down the man who'd bought Butkus and paid $15,000 to get him back — the dog went on to appear alongside him in Rocky and its sequels. The film won the 1977 Academy Award for Best Picture and launched a franchise and a career now worth an estimated $400 million.
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