She Was Astrologist to the Stars—and Mom to One

The world has lost a little personality. Jackie Stallone, astrologist to the stars and mother to actor Sylvester Stallone, died Monday at age 98, her youngest son, Frank, wrote in an Instagram post. He described his mother as "very eccentric and flamboyant" and "full of spunk and fearless," adding "she died in her sleep as she had wished." Though her elder son made the family name famous, Stallone was well-known in her own right. She worked as a hairdresser, trapeze artist, and Broadway chorus girl before appearing in the 1980s wrestling program GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, which inspired a recent Emmy-winning Netflix series, per Variety and the BBC. Later, she penned a series of astrology books and launched a psychic hotline.

She advised "kings, prime ministers, politicians, movie stars, gamblers, generals, gangsters, cops and priests," according to her website. She didn’t just read the stars. As Variety reports, Stallone claimed to have invented "rumpology"—the practice of reading a person's butt. She made numerous TV appearances, including on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, and The Late Show. In 2005, she appeared as a surprise guest on the UK's Celebrity Big Brother. She kept up with weight-lifting and trapeze work into her 90s as she expressed regret over plastic surgeries. "I feel I look like a chipmunk," she said in 2013, per the BBC. She leaves behind three sons and several grandchildren. Her daughter, Toni D'Alto, died of lung cancer in 2012 at age 48. (Sylvester Stallone's son died the same year.)