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Sylvester Stallone’s late son, Sage haunts the actor’s new Netflix documentary, Sly.

It is clear that the tragic passing of his oldest son, who died at the age of 36 in 2012, is a sensitive topic in the doccie as Stallone never outright addresses it.

Sage, who appeared alongside his father in the 1990 film Rocky V, was his first child with his first wife, Sasha Czack. The two have another son named Seargeoh Stallone, while he also had Sophia, Sistine, and Scarlet Stallone with his third wife, Jennifer Flavin.

While it is possible that director Thom Zimny never asked the right questions about the devastating loss of Sage, it seems more likely that the Rocky star drew the line at discussing his late son all on his own.

As Decider notes, however, the documentary gets around it via clips from Rocky V, in which Sage played his father’s on-screen son, Robert Balboa Jr.

Image: Cinetext/United Artists/Allstar Picture Library

The death of Sage is also acknowledged with a memorial card, noting his lifespan from 1976 to 2012, which honestly just ends up leaving viewers with more questions.

Furthermore, in Sly, Stallone admits that his character’s storyline in that film – that he would ignore his family for his work—was, unfortunately, based on his own life.

“[Adrian] tears me a new one. ‘Save your son.’ A lot of that is true,” Stallone said. “Unfortunately, you put things before your family and the repercussions are quite radical and devastating.”

So what happened to Sage?

It was reported that Sage was found unresponsive in his Los Angeles home on July 13, with police saying they found “large empty prescription bottles” in his home prompting speculation that he died as a result of a pill overdose.

It was well known that Sage had a prescription-drug problem but a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County coroner announced that heart disease from atherosclerosis, not drugs, was Sage’s cause of death, CNN reported at the time.

Atherosclerosis, which is the build-up of plaque in the arteries, is one of the leading causes of coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease, Insider reported. But what caused the disease?

The toxicology test showed that Sage had no drugs in his system at the time of his death, except for a small, “sub-therapeutic” level of hydrocodone, commonly sold under the brand name Vicodin, per People.

Image: Wikipedia

In July 2012, People interviewed Sage’s friends, who told the outlet that he often preferred junk food and cigarettes and was addicted to prescription medication. They also said Sage had a complicated relationship with his father.

After he made his acting debut at 14 as the titular character’s son, Robert Balboa Jr., in the fifth Rocky instalment, Sage also appeared in the films The Evil Inside Me, Vic, and Daylight, which also starred his father. As an adult, he also worked as a director and executive producer.

During an interview with People published in December 1996, Stallone said his son “avoids the gym like the plague,” while Sage added: “People call me a hermit, but I’m happy.”

It was also noted that when Stallone’s death was first reported, the 36-year-old may have been dead for days before his body was found and his house was not well-kept.

“Life is addition up until age 40, and then it’s subtraction,” Stallone said in a talking head, near the end of the documentary. “Your children are moving out, your friends are moving on, some dying, job is gone. Gone. It’s loss.”

The documentary is on Netflix now:

[source:insider&decider]