Jackie Stallone, celebrity astrologer, Sylvester Stallone's eccentric mother, dies at 98

Jackie Stallone, the colorful mother of actor Sylvester Stallone, celebrity astrologer and women's professional wrestling manager, died Monday. She was 98.

Musician son Frank Stallone announced his mother's death on Instagram Monday night, saying she had "died in her sleep as she had wished."

"This morning my brothers and I lost our mother Jackie Stallone," he wrote below a picture gallery of his mother's life. "She was a remarkable woman, working out everyday, full of spunk and fearless. It was hard not to like her, she was (a) very eccentric and flamboyant person."

"Mama Stallone," as she was called, was the mother of "Rocky" star Sylvester, 75, Grammy-nominated musician Frank, 70 (from her first marriage to Frank Stallone Sr.) and late actress Toni D'Alto (from Stallone's second marriage to Anthony Filiti) who died in 2012 at 48.

Born Jacqueline Labofish on November 29, 1921 in Washington D.C., she claimed to have started her entertainment career as an aerialist with the Flying Wallendas act in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Circus.

Jackie Stallone, astrologer, early GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) promoter and Sylvester Stallone and Frank Stallones mother, has died at age 98.
Jackie Stallone, astrologer, early GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) promoter and Sylvester Stallone and Frank Stallones mother, has died at age 98.

Stallone was the first woman to have a daily TV show on exercise and weight lifting in Washington, D.C., and later opened a gym for women, Barbella's. She was a key promoter and manager with "GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling" for five years, starting in 1986.

"Oh my heart broke hearing of the passing of #JackieStallone. 98 years young and was still doing Pilates when we last spoke," former GLOW wrestler Angelina Altishin, aka "Little Egypt," wrote on Twitter. "What a fire she would lite inside me each time we connected. She wasn't just the mother of @TheSlyStallone she was our good girl manager in #glow."

Stallone emerged as a celebrity astrologer in the mid-1990s, setting up a TV psychic hotline. She referred to herself as "the foremost American rumpologist." According to her website, the practice is "sometimes called butt reading in modern parlance. It is the art of reading the lines, crevices, dimples, and folds of the buttocks to divine the individual's character."

Stallone made a splash as the 2005 surprise guest on the British TV series "Celebrity Big Brother." The straight-talking Stallone was brought onto the show to interact with fellow contestant and former daughter-in-law Brigitte Nielsen, with whom she notoriously argued. Nielsen was married to Sylvester Stallone from 1985-1987.

Stallone's unannounced entrance into the Big Brother house and Nielsen's realization is one of the classic moments of British reality TV.

"Oh my God, Jackie," the shocked Nielsen said, covering her mouth.

Stallone was the first contestant voted out by viewers after four days in the house.

Nielsen paid tribute Monday, posting a picture of the two on Instagram. "Extremely strong, full of energy and very unique woman under so many aspects, till the very end," wrote Nielsen. "Emotions are running through me all because now you're gone and I didn't get to say goodbye. You'll be surely missed. Rest in Peace dear."

Stallone remained remarkably active late into her 90s, posing for an April quarantine photo in work-out apparel and headband, holding a barbell in hand and a medicine ball in another.

"I’m staying fit, I am studying the accordion daily," she wrote of quarantine life. "I think I know as much as my teacher does."

Her son Frank honored his colorful mother's character Monday.

"I will never be able to call my mom again or have her yell at me why I never got married," wrote Frank Stallone. "But we all loved her and her spirit to survive and prevail."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jackie Stallone dies at 98: Sylvester's eccentric mother, astrologer