They were a heck of an on-screen team.
Dolly Parton sadly passed away on on August 25, 2026 at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Aside from that, she understandably didn’t share more, though it has since been revealed that she suffered a “brief battle with cancer.”
She was not only a once-on-generation artist, but she was also an actress, starring in films like 9 to 5 in 1980, The Best Little W********** in Texas in 1982, Rhinestone in 1984, and my personal favorite, Steel Magnolias in 1989, in addition to several others.
She acted alongside many legends, from Burt Reynolds to Sylvester Stallone, who played Nick Martinelli, a tone-deaf New York City cab driver who Dolly makes a bet over saying she could turn him into a country music star.
The movie is a musical romantic comedy, and was directed by Bob Clark. It was of course based on the 1975 hit song “Rhinestone Cowboy,” and even though the movie didn’t do well at the box office, the movie did spawn two top 10 country hits for Dolly in “Tennessee Homesick Blues,” which peaked at #1 on both the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, and “God Won’t Get You,” which peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Stallone famously passed on movies like Beverly Hills Cop and Romancing the Stone to do Rhinestone with Dolly, though he saw the movie going in a different direction, wanting it to be a more gritty, “down and dirty” film, though director Bob Clark made it a much more silly, campy comedy that was a far cry from the Rocky Balboa character he became iconic for.
While Stallone has said he regrets how the movie shifted his career at the time and the direction it took, he has never wavered on how much he loved working with Dolly and how it was some of the most fun he ever had on a set, and the two remained close friends.
And during a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, they host played him an old interview from around the time the movie was released, where he talked about their instant bond and how much they loved being around each other:
“When I met Dolly, we instantly enjoyed one another’s personalities, company, outlook, and I think philosophies, if I can be so bold. There is a very relaxed sense of well-being between us.”
She replies with a beaming smile:
“And I like him. I like him too.”
It’s just precious…
While watching it, Stallone looked on and smiled, saying:
“This is my favorite!”
After watching the clip, Stallone reflected on the whole process, explaining that it sometimes feels like a dream:
“You can’t even find this film anywhere, which is amazing, I’m going, did it really happen? Or was it a dream?”
When asked if his agents had “whiplash” when he signed on to do Rhinestone, he said they absolutely did and told him it was a “career killer.” But he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to work with a beyond incredible talent like Dolly, so he went for it:
“Oh, they went nuts. They said, ‘Jesus, what a career killer.’ I go, ‘So be it.’ You’re never gonna have this chance again, it’s more than working with an actress. It’s working with a philosophy and a talent that is beyond, really, you cant categorize her.”
He reminisced on her laugh, saying she “never stopped” laughing, and while on set, she knew the name of every crew member and spoke to them often. He once again confirms the character we all came to know Dolly to have, and he also told a great story about Dolly taking him back to her hometown in the Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee:
“I remember that she never stopped, literally, laughing. She also would go around and knew the name of every crew member.
When took me to her hometown, I go like, to meet Uncle Lugnut or whatever his name was, and she would laugh about that and go, ‘We ain’t got no lugnuts in our family.’ I mean, she came… when I say humble beginnings, wow.”
She was a one-of-a-kind in every way, and I love hearing stories like this from other icons who worked with Dolly in her prime, and every single time they have confirmed what an incredible musician, entertainer, and most importantly, person, she was:
This movie never got the respect it deserved… it was ahead of its time, so lighthearted and funny, and even though Stallone said in the ET interview that you can’t find it anywhere, I do think it’s streaming on a few platforms if you’ve never seen it before:
“God Won’t Get You”
“Goin’ Back to Heaven”
