The Real-Life Soldier & Actor Who Inspired Stallone's Rambo

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Audie Murphy is the soldier and actor who inspired the creation of First Blood's Rambo. Sylvester Stallone was far from the first choice to play Rambo in 1982's First Blood, an adaptation of author David Morrell's novel. The book saw a Vietnam vet with severe PTSD launch a bloody war on a small town when he's harassed and bullied by the local sheriff. The Rambo featured in Morrell's First Blood had no issue killing those he saw as enemies, but when Stallone signed on, he felt audiences would have more sympathy for the character if these elements were removed.

First Blood gave Stallone one of his first major hits outside of the Rocky movie franchise. Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III  — which has an apt Guinness world record — would turn the soldier into the ultimate '80s action hero, with the muscle-bound Stallone often single-handedly taking on armies with knives, exploding arrows and heavy machine guns. Stallone would regret this approach in later years, feeling these entries glamorized war. With 2008's Rambo, he set to portray war in all its ugliness, with the film featuring scenes of unflinching violence and brutality. The actor seemingly hung up the headband following Rambo: Last Blood, where the former soldier takes on a cartel.

Related: Kirk Douglas Quit Rambo When His Bizarre Alternate Ending Was Rejected

Despite claiming 2019's critically lambasted Last Blood will be his final outing in the role, Sylvester Stallone does have an interesting Rambo 6 concept in mind. Some of the feats of heroism featured in the Rambo movies may seem to stretch credulity, but in conceiving the character, author Morrell based Rambo on the most highly decorated soldier of World War 2, Audie Murphy, who performed some equally