Sylvester's mom was an astrologer and fitness guru

OBITUARY

Jackie Stallone, who has died aged 98, was an astrologer and fitness guru, and the mother of Sylvester; she was best-known in Britain for one of the great coups de theatre of reality television during its heyday in the early years of the century.

For many years she was famous for nothing so much as her bitter relationship with her former daughter-in-law, the Danish film star Brigitte Nielsen. When Sylvester Stallone married Brigitte in 1985, Jackie — who once claimed to be the Princess of Wales's favourite astrologer — had divined that the auspices were not good, and Brigitte blamed her for precipitating a rapid marital breakdown.

In 2005 Brigitte Nielsen appeared in the third series of Celebrity Big Brother. On her fifth day in the house she and her fellow contestants, including Germaine Greer and John McCririck, were enjoined to dress up in “medieval” costume to herald the arrival of a new “Queen Mother.”

The new housemate proved to be Jackie Stallone, to Brigitte Nielsen's evident distress. Mrs Stallone's typically slurred declaration of her presence — “Yeah, I'm Drackie” — was soon constantly replayed on radio and television, and became a popular internet meme.

Jackie Stallone — whose record as the program's oldest contestant was never surpassed — was voted out by the public after four days. But although the closeting of two people with such a toxic history was denounced as a new low for reality TV, in the event Jackie and Brigitte bonded, with Brigitte subsequently accepting an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner.

Jacqueline Frances Labofish was born in Washington on Nov. 29, 1921. Her father was from a family of Jewish immigrants from Odessa; he had met her mother, a French woman, while serving with the U.S. Navy. Both parents were lawyers. Jackie Stallone claimed on her website that Charles Atlas had lived with them and “trained the family in gymnastics, weightlifting and jogging.”

At 15 she “ran away from home to join the circus” and became a “star aerialist.” In 1945 she married Frank Stallone, a hairdresser, and they had two sons, Sylvester and Frank Jr. She stood over the young Sylvester with a stick to force him to learn the piano, and paid him for every five minutes he spent reading a book.

Having divorced in 1957, she took her final high school exams at 40 and went on to secure a Chemistry degree. She subsequently had her own daily exercise program on television, founded a women-only gym, and in the 1980s “managed” a women's wrestling team in the confected TV series GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

Later on she set up as a successful psychic and astrologer — inventing “rumpology,” an alternative to palmistry. She was an indefatigable giver of advice and told the newly single Duchess of York, on meeting her in Qatar, to marry a rich sheik: “There are all these men dressed alike, all very rich and with no underwear. Perfect for a single girl.”

Jackie Stallone was a devotee of plastic surgery, and had no compunction over shaving years off her age, even when that suggested she gave birth to Sylvester while a pubescent. She continued to work out vigorously into old age, and a video of her pumping iron at 92 went viral. Her second marriage, to Anthony Filiti, was also dissolved; they had a daughter, the actress Toni D'Alto, who died of cancer in 2012. She is survived by her third husband, Stephen Levine, and her two sons.

Jackie Stallone