Jackie Stallone, the "flamboyant" and "eccentric" mother of actor Sylvester Stallone, has died at the age of 98.
She found fame in her own right throughout her long and varied life, first as a women's wrestling promoter in the 1980s and then with TV appearances, most notably when she took part in Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother in 2005.
She also worked as a celebrity astrologer in the 1990s and was employed as a circus aerialist in her teens.
Confirming his mother’s death on Facebook, her musician son Frank Stallone wrote that she had "died in her sleep as she wished."
He described her as a "a remarkable woman, working out every day, full of spunk and fearless … it was hard not to like her, she was [a] very eccentric and flamboyant person".
Jackie made a surprise entrance on the third series of Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 when Brigitte Nielsen, who was married to Sylvester between 1985 and 1987, was already ensconced in the house.
Jackie and Brigitte continued their already fraught relationship on the show and Jackie was voted out after four days.
She was married three times, and had a daughter, Toni, who died in 2012. Jackie is survived by sons Sylvester and Frank Stallone, and her husband Stephen Levine.
