Sylvester Stallone
Stallone was not very well known by a lot of people until his role in Rocky (1976). On March 24, 1975, he saw the Muhammed Ali–Chuck Wepner fight which gave him the idea for Rocky. That night Stallone went home, and in three days he had written the script for Rocky. After that, he tried to sell the script with the intent of playing the lead role. Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler both  liked the script (which Stallone submitted to them after a casting), and planned on having a star like Burt Reynolds or James Caan to play the lead character. Rocky was nominated for ten Academy Awards, this included Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay nominations for Stallone.