[/b]    Well, Rocky Balboa is an Italian-American boxer, Adrian, Paulie, and Rocky's priest were also IAs, (As were a few other characters) and some Italian was spoken in at least three of the films. They do have an IA character about them. Also, many of the actors playing Italian-American characters in the franchise are Italian-Americans in real life. Hmm...and his original trainer Mick was a Jew.