In one of the great but more awkward film romances of all time, Rocky Balboa and his paramour Adrian Pennino end up bonding over aquatic wildlife.
Don’t remember the 1976 classic Rocky that way?
Well, think back to how they met — Adrian worked at J&M Tropical Fish where Rocky purchased his two pet turtles, Cuff and Link.
The budding romance eventually wound up with her gifting him a dog, Butkus, but it all started with the turtles who gave him an excuse to visit the store and bond with Adrian when he went to buy them food.
It turns out those two tiny turtles — who are actually females and were five years old at the time — made quite an impression on Stallone during filming. So much so that Stallone ended up using them in all of the subsequent films.
These days, the turtles are living the good life — and they’re now 45 years old!
The world went wild when Stallone updated his Instagram account with a photo of the pair in May 2018, announcing that they would be making their next film big-screen appearance is his film CREED 2.
In his caption, he wrote:
“In CREED 2 with my original buddies from the first Rocky … CUFF and LINK, now about 44 years old!”
The post has now been liked by over 390,000 fans who fondly remembering the turtles.
“My turtle’s name is Rocky and is 25 years old,” said one.
People immediately begged for the two turtles to get their own Instagram account, but it doesn’t appear to be on the horizon for the acting duo.
A helpful commenter also added that they are Red Eared Sliders, the most common type of house turtle.
At first, it appeared that Stallone had kept the turtles himself all this time, but in reality, they went back to the pet store owner who first sold them to the film company — a man named Joseph Marks. According to Bored Panda, after filming wrapped in 1975, Marks decided to keep the Hollywood stars himself.
The fansite TotalRocky.com said Marks once had to correct Rocky producers when they said the turtles were making their film debut in one of the later films. In fact, they claimed he even has “a signed note from Rocky Balboa’s set decorator, Robert Greenfield, identifying the female red-eared sliders as the originals and affirming that Marks lent them for Rocky Balboa.”
Since Marks and Stallone kept in touch over the years, the film legend was able to arrange for the turtles’ guest appearances in the sequels as well as the CREED films, which are based on the Rocky Balboa character.
Marks closed the store — which was actually called J&M Tropical Fish and served as a shooting location in the film — and let his nephew live there with the turtles until it was demolished in 2017.
We can only assume that everyone has moved to a different location together since then.
Marks said that the turtles are now the size of small dinner plates — measuring 8″ from nose to tail.
The writers at Total Rocky appear to have done their research, even interviewing Marks as his place of work to confirm the turtles’ story (and this was in 2006, long before Stallone posted his update).
While we’re a little disappointed they aren’t living in Hollywood style at the Stallone compound, it appears they are very well taken care of and still pursuing their acting careers.
You can relive your love for the original Rocky film by scrolling down below to see the two shelled stars in their original roles.
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