“Sly later said ‘a streetcar named Drago’ had hit him,” Lundgren wrote in his memoir.

Dolph Lundgren recalls sending Sylvester Stallone to hospital during Rocky IV filming after hitting him too hard

“Sly later said ‘a streetcar named Drago’ had hit him,” Lundgren wrote in his memoir.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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September 26, 2026 8:00 a.m. ET

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Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in ‘Rocky IV’. Credit: Everett Collection

- Dolph Lundgren is sharing the story of sending Sylvester Stallone to the hospital.

- The actor wrote in his memoir about the *Rocky IV* incident.

- Stallone told Lundgren that he was hit by “a streetcar named Drago.”

Dolph Lundgren almost broke Sylvester Stallone.

Lundgren memorably made his starring debut in 1985’s *Rocky IV*, playing the machine-like Soviet boxer Ivan Drago, who, after killing Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in the ring, faces off with Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). In the hit sequel, Rocky is the winner in the end, but Lundgren writes in his new memoir, *Fights Worth Fighting: Finding Strength in Struggle*, about sending Stallone to the hospital.

“I was bigger than him and was probably hurting him a lot more than he was hurting me, but the first I ever knew about it was after I had gone back to L.A. and the producer told me, ‘You’ve got two weeks off.’ I said, ‘Oh, great. Why?’ He said, ‘Sly’s in the hospital.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, sh--,’” Lundgren recalled. “[Stallone] had filmed multiple takes of Rocky being hit by a lot of really heavy shots to the body. After we had completed the last day of shooting up there, Sly began having trouble breathing.”

Lundgren believes that Stallone was “overworked,” simultaneously serving as the *Rocky IV* star, writer, and director. He was brought to a nearby emergency room, and because his blood pressure was so high, he was flown at low altitude to a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., where he spent four days in intensive care.

Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren at ‘Creed’ premiere.

Todd Williamson/Getty

“According to Sly, I had hit him so hard that his heart had slammed up against his breastbone and was bruised,” Lundgren shared. “Because people who had been thrown up against the steering wheel in car accidents often died from this, Sly later said ‘a streetcar named Drago’ had hit him. All I knew was I had hit him hard when he told me to hit him hard and he had absorbed a lot of punishment.”

Lundgren added, “It was only much later that I learned he had actually been in intensive care. Because the next time I saw him was when we started shooting again back in Los Angeles, and he seemed fine.”

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Dolph Lundgren responds to Sylvester Stallone's 'Drago' slams

*Rocky IV* was a $300 million hit and launched Lundgren’s career as an action star, with roles such as He-Man and The Punisher soon coming his way. Stallone and Lundgren later reunited for *The Expendables* franchise and the *Rocky* spinoff, *Creed II*.

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But it was only after Lundgren’s cancer battle that he says the duo’s relationship grew much stronger.

“Stallone has been a great part of my life,” Lundgren recently told **. “He’s an Italian, so he’s very emotional, and I remember when I broke the news about my cancer, the next day I was in a store in Beverly Hills, and I get this call from him, and he’s in tears. ‘[*Stallone voice*] How are you feeling? I have to see you.’ And it was like, whoa. I was just in shock, because we had this tough-guy kind of camaraderie, but we hadn’t really spoken about this on that level. Since then we’ve become quite close friends. I think those guys are softies too, like me.”

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