Sylvester Stallone Records Shout-Out Video to Front Royal Police: ‘You Guys Are MY Hero’

Rich Fury/Getty Images

Movie star Sylvester Stallone, 74, offered up a video shout-out from his home in Beverly Hills to the law enforcement of Front Royal Police Department all the way in Virginia.

At the request of friend Martin Wiener, the actor recorded the short clip to support the men and women in blue who risk their lives on the job every day.

“Eric, and the rest of the men at the Front Royal Police Department, I just want to say, you guys are my hero,” Stallone says in the seconds-long clip, which you can watch here, “and you just keep punching.” Then he feigns a supportive right cross toward the camera, channeling his iconic character Rocky Balboa.

Sylvester Stallone attends the photocall for Sylvester Stallone & Rambo V: Last Blood during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 24, 2019, in Cannes, France. Antony Jones/Getty Images

The FRPD proudly posted the clip “Sylvester Stallone loves FRPD“ on their Facebook page on Aug. 13, captioned:

“Sgt. Eric Suess and the Front Royal Police Department received a special shout out from none other than Sylvester Stallone!

“Thank you Martin Wiener for helping to make this happen,” they added. “Stallone is a huge supporter of law enforcement and we appreciate his message to us!” Front Royal Police Sgt. Eric Suess and Los Angeles-based car broker Martin Wiener are friends who first connected on social media, reports The Northern Virginia Daily. Wiener told the news outlet that he and Suess started chatting about police work and the car broker “thanked him for his service.”

As luck would have it, Stallone was a client of Wiener’s. When the actor purchased a custom Cadillac Escalade from the broker, worth almost half a million dollars, the two men got to talking. and Wiener spied an opportunity.

He made reference to his friend, the Front Royal police sergeant, and just so happened to mention that several officers on the same force were fans of Stallone’s work. The actor reciprocated by offering to record a “shout-out” for the hardworking Virginia-based law enforcement unit.

Stallone recorded the short clip from outside his family home in Beverly Hills before sending it over to the unsuspecting police department, no doubt making their day.

Stallone in London, England, on Jan. 12, 1979 Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Stallone has a rich personal history with law enforcement, having portrayed numerous purveyors of the law on TV and in movies since the mid-seventies. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stallone took roles as some of the most prolific cop characters on the big screen, helping shape the way America views law enforcement.

“I didn’t want to do ultra-violent, metronomic, mathematical films,” Stallone told the Washington Post in 1997, speaking of his creative intention at the time. “I wanted to do something that moves you.”

Stallone played a handful of heroic, conservative characters such as Deke DaSilva in 1981’s “Nighthawks” and Sheriff Freddy Heflin in 1997’s “Cop Land.” Fast-forward two decades, and Stallone’s real-life reverence for law enforcement has meant the world to one small town in Virginia.

“Sly is very pro-police,” Wiener shared. “It’s not every day a town of 15,000 gets a shout out from maybe the biggest star of the last 40 years.”

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