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Rocky At 40: An Aging Legend’s Unbreakable Relevance

The Stetson-style fedora that Sylvester Stallone wore as Rocky Balboa is as much a part of the Philadelphia boxer’s fictional lore as his Delaware Valley accent and the bruising body blows he rained on opponents.

Tattered on the brim and always slightly tilted, the hat has followed him through five separate decades of films since the Rocky series debuted 40 years ago: the classics Rocky (1976) and Rocky II (1979); the blockbusters Rocky III (1982) and Rocky IV (1985); the underrated Rocky V (1990), the overlooked Rocky Balboa (2006), and the acclaimed Creed (2015).