Jackie Stallone, the ‘eccentric’ Big Brother star and ‘remarkable’ camp icon, has died aged 98
Jackie Stallone making her iconic Celebrity Big Brother entrance. (Channel 4)
Jackie Stallone, who became a camp icon with her infamous turn on Celebrity Big Brother, has died aged 98.
Stallone was remembered as a “very eccentric and flamboyant person” by her son Frank, who confirmed that she passed away Monday (September 21) “in her sleep as she had wished”.
“She was a remarkable woman,” Frank Stallone wrote on Instagram, “full of spunk and fearless”.
“Her mind was as sharp as a razor till the day she died.”
The 98-year-old is survived by three children: Frank, Tommy and Rocky star Sylvester Stallone. Her daughter, Toni D’Alto, passed away in 2012 to cancer.
In the UK Jackie became a cult figure following her brief stint on Celebrity Big Brother in 2005.
She entered the house a late addition, joining her former daughter-in-law (Sylvester’s ex-wife) Brigitte Nielsen.
“Oh my God! Jackie!” Nielsen cried when Jackie entered the house, to which came her immortal response: “Yeah… Jackie.”
Jackie Stallone arriving at the gates of heaven today x https://t.co/afO3yMYj71
— Nick Bond (@bondnickbond) September 22, 2020
Four days later she was voted out of the house having stirred up tension with her fellow colleagues.
Big Brother presenter Davina McCall was among those to pay respects, calling Jackie a “BB icon”. Fellow host Rylan Clark-Neal called her an “icon”, adding: “RIP Brackieeee”.
RIP Jackie Stallone x BB icon ❤️— Davina McCall (@ThisisDavina) September 22, 2020
An icon. What a housemate. I hope you’re surrounded by “harpists or something”. RIP Brackieeee. X pic.twitter.com/jYD1ljNptr— R Y L A N (@Rylan) September 22, 2020
Jackie Stallone: Trapeze artist, wrestling promoter, astrologer, mother.
Outside of reality TV, Jackie Stallone was known as an astrologer to the stars.
In the eighties she worked as a wrestling promoter, appearing on the original GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, which inspired the Netflix comedy of the same name.
Her colourful life began on November 29, 1921. She was born Jacqueline Frances Labofish in Washington DC, and ran away from home aged 15 to join the circus.
She worked as a trapeze artist and a Broadway chorus girl, and later appeared on daily TV as an exercise instructor.
In the 1990s she turned her passion for astrology into a career, inventing what she called “rumpology” – the art of reading people’s futures through their buttocks.
She had seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren, and in her later years, “Sylvester took care of her like a Queen for all of her life”, according to Frank.
Frank added: “I will never be able to call my mom again or have her yell at me why I never got married. But we all loved her and her sprit to survive and prevail. I’ll miss you always mommy.”
