Sylvester Stallone 'grief-stricken' after son Sage, 36, is found dead... as it emerges 'prescription pills were found at scene'

• Star 'devastated and grief-stricken' over sudden loss of his eldest child
• Sage played the 66-year-old's onscreen son in Rocky V
• An autopsy is scheduled to take place in the next 48 hours after filmmaker was found next to prescription drugs

By Daily Mail Reporter

Sylvester Stallone was said to have almost collapsed with grief on learning of the death of his son yesterday.
The body of Sage Stallone, 36, was found by his housekeeper at his Los Angeles home.
Prescription drugs were reportedly found nearby but police said it was too early to say whether they were the cause of his death.

Tragedy: Sylvester Stallone's son Sage was found dead this afternoon in his Los Angeles apartment after a suspected drug overdose. He was 36, pictured here in 2006 in Hollywood

A source close to Stallone said: 'When he heard the news, Sly was shocked, short of breath and almost collapsed. He just went quiet before sobbing uncontrollably. He is a wreck  at the moment.'

Sage's aunt Melanie Hart told The Mail on Sunday: 'People are speculating that it was suicide  but we really have no idea.'

There were unconfirmed reports that Sage, whose mother is Stallone's first wife Sasha Czack, had been dead for four days before his body was found.

 

A source told RadarOnline that medics arrived on the scene at 3.05pm this afternoon and spent around 25 minutes trying to revive Sage before his death was pronounced at the scene.
His body was taken straight to the coroner's office - and the insider claims no suicide note was found.
'I suspect he had been dead for quite a while when he was discovered,' the source told the website.

'Usually medics will be at the scene for around 45 minutes but they were out of there within half an hour.
'There were a number of prescription bottles found at the scene but it did not appear to be suicide and no note was found.'

Pronounced dead at the scene: The coroner's van was spotted at Sage's home in Los Angeles along with news crews

Unresponsive: The filmmaker's body was taken straight to the coroner's office - and not to the hospital

A 9-1-1 call  was placed shortly before 3pm and the caller said Sage wasn't breathing and indicated it could be a drug overdose, Radar reports. An autopsy is scheduled to take place in the next 48 hours.
Shortly after news of Sage's death, a spokesman released a statement on behalf of his action hero father, 66, who was at the Comic Con film convention in San Diego yesterday.
'Sylvester Stallone is devastated and grief-stricken over the sudden loss of his son,' the actor's spokesperson Michelle Bega said in the statement.

'His compassion and thoughts are with Sage's mother, Sasha.'

Sudden death: The body of the 36-year-old Sage Stallone was brought out to the coroner's van in Los Angeles

Devastated: Sly's agent released a statement saying he was 'grief-striken' at the loss of his son

Mystery: An autopsy is scheduled to take place in the next 48 hours to determine the cause of death

Earlier: Sly was at Comic Com yesterday evening

Red carpet smiles: Sage pictured in 1996 at the Hollywood premiere of Daylight with his father Sylvester and his now-wife Jennifer Flavin

Double act: Sage appeared alongside his father in the 1990 movie Rocky V, playing the role of Rocky's son Robert Balboa

'He was a very talented and wonderful young man. His loss will be felt forever.'
Police said they found the younger Stallone in the home while responding to a 'welfare check', however Sage's lawyer George Braunstein said he was found by a housekeeper.
Friends and acquaintances had become concerned because they hadn't heard from Sage in the past day.
Braunstein said the death came as a shock, telling the New York Post this afternoon: 'He was in good spirits, and working on all kinds of projects.
'He was planning on getting married. I am just devastated. He was an extremely wonderful, loving guy. This is a tragedy.'

Before the heartbreak: Stallone was pictured yesterday with Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Comic Con film convention in San Diego

Sage Moonblood Stallone was the oldest of Sylvester Stallone's children and co-starred with his father in two films. He was the first of two sons Stallone had with first wife Sasha Czack.

He made his acting debut in 1990's Rocky V - he played his Stallone's onscreen son - and also appeared with his father in 1996's Daylight.

Hand in hand: Sylvester pictured back in 1982 with his first wife Sasha Czack, Sage's mother

Also in 1996, Sage Stallone and veteran film editor Bob Murawski co-founded Grindhouse Releasing, a company dedicated to preserving and promoting the B-movies and exploitation films of the 1970s and 80s.

He also directed the 2006 short Vic, which screened at the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Braunstein said Sage had frequent requests to work on films.

'He was a full of life filmmaker with his whole future ahead of him,' he said. 'He was just very up and enthusiastic and positive.

'I think it was probably some sort of accident,' he said of the death.

Braunstein added that Sage Stallone greatly admired his father but was working hard to make his own name in the film industry.

'He was very proud of his father and proud to be his father's son,' he said.
Stallone's split from Sage's mother Czack in 1985 after 11 years together. They also have a another son Seargeoh, 32, who is autistic. 
Stallone went on to wed model and actress Brigitte Nielsen in Beverly Hills but they split just two years later in a very public divorce.
He married third wife, Jennifer Flavin, in 1997 after an eight-year on-again, off-again relationship and they have three daughters: Sophia Rose, 15, Sistine Rose, 14, and Scarlet Rose, 10.
Sage, who was raised by his mother following his parents' divorce, felt distant from his father growing up, a theme which hit home as they were filming Rocky V together.

Big boots to fill: Sage said he always worried about living up to his father's success, seen here together again in Rocky V

‘When I was screaming, “You never spent time with me! You never spent time with my mother!” - that was true,’ he told People magazine in 1996. ‘I was looking into my father's face and really saying that.’
But it proved a turning point for the father and son, who went on to form a close bond and they acted again together in the 1996 film Daylight.
‘Between takes, Sly and Sage would roll around in the dirt like two puppies,’ the director Rob Cohen observed at the time.
Sage certainly felt the pressure of growing up with such a famous father and would worry that he would never match his success.
‘I tell him, “As long as you give it your best, that's all that matters,” his mother Sasha said in that same year.
Sage went on to pursue a career behind the camera and shunned the wild Hollywood party scene, preferring to watch horror zombie films instead.
‘People call me a hermit,’ he said while promoting the film. ‘But I'm happy.’

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