Sylvester Stallone: My Oscar nomination proves to my kids I'm an actor

Sylvester Stallone has come back swinging in a big way. The 69-year-old won his first Academy Award back in 1977 for his performance in Rocky and has since earned his second nomination this year for his reprised role as boxer Rocky Balboa in the Oscar-nominated film Creed.

“I didn't think that I was in this universe anymore,” Sylvester told HELLO! of reentering the award scene, at the Critic’s Choice Awards on Sunday. “Career-wise I had gone in a different direction. I didn't want to but that is how it worked out.”

Sylvester with wife Jennifer and the couple's three daughters Photo: Getty Images

He continued, “I was primarily in the action genre. So to be invited back into this world where I started out is almost a reprieve... I was given a second opportunity so it really is a sense of being reborn.”

The actor has been making his rounds this award season surrounded by a bevy of beautiful young ladies — his wife ( Jennifer Flavin) and the couple's three daughters (Sophia, 19, Scarlet, 13, and Sistine, 17 ). He said, “I love that my kids get to see it because they just thought I was a bad golfer for a living – not acting, but a horrible golfer! But now I have proof!”

Sly's comeback was complete with a nomination for Creed, meaning his kids no longer think he's "just a bad golfer" Photo: Getty Images

Sylvester, who paid tribute to his late son Sage after his Golden Globes win, noted that his family takes precedence over actual awards he's won. He said, “[Family is] the greatest award that you get, because in the end, when you're on your deathbed, you're going to basically be judged on how you raised your kids and what you left behind, so finally they get to understand that they have a caring father, that movies are wonderful, but they pale in comparison to the movie of life, which is making them go on into the future and be very, very successful.”

-- Reporting: Alex Cramer