Facts about Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography
Once the world’s leading bodybuilder, Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and then the governor of California from 2003-2011.
Nicknamed “The Austrian Oak,” Arnold Schwarzenegger started pumping iron when he was a teenager and in 1965 won the Mr. Europe Junior title. He went on to win five Mr. Universe titles (both amateur and professional) and was named Mr. Olympia seven times (1970-75 and 1980).
Always ambitious, he landed a few small movie roles before appearing in the hit documentary Pumping Iron (1977). He played a bodybuilder in the movie Stay Hungry (1976, with Sally Field), and his natural charisma led to more movies and recognition. Once he played the oiled-up title hero in Conan The Barbarian (1982), Arnold Schwarzenegger was suddenly a movie star.
He had another big hit in 1984, starring as a killer robot in James Cameron‘s The Terminator. Throughout the 1980s he was a top box office draw, mostly appearing in action films, but also adding comedy to his repertoire. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was even more successful than the first movie, and Arnold Schwarzenegger became one of the highest paid actors in show business.
During the 1990s, Schwarzenegger continued to make big-budget thrillers and earned a reputation for being a crack businessman and a conservative Republican. He reprised the Terminator role in 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In August 2003, Schwarzenegger announced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he would run for governor of California in a special October recall election. He won the recall on October 7, 2003, replacing Gray Davis as governor. He was re-elected to a new term in 2006. Term limits prevented him from running again, and he was succeeded as governor by Jerry Brown in 2011.
Since leaving office, Schwarzenegger has returned to Hollywood as an elder action statesman, appearing in potboilers like Escape Plan (2013) and The Expendables (2010), The Expendables 2 (2012) and The Expendables 3 (2014). He also lent his image to a long-running ad campaign for the online war game Mobile Strike.
Extra credit
Arnold Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen in 1983. However, he is barred by the U.S. Constitution from running for president because he was born outside the United States… Arnold Schwarzenegger married television broadcaster and Kennedy family member Maria Shriver on April 26, 1986. They announced in May of 2011 that they had separated, in the wake of reports (later confirmed) that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son with their housekeeper, Mildred Baena. Though both Shriver and Schwarzenegger moved on to date other people, their divorce did not become final until December 30, 2021. They have four children: Katherine Eunice (b. 1989), Christina Maria Aurelia (b. 1991), Patrick Arnold (b. 1993), and Christopher Sargent Shriver (b. 1997)… Maria Shriver’s mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics, and Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a supporter of that group… One of his movies, The Last Action Hero (1993), is often mentioned as a famous Hollywood flop… Rainier Wolfcastle, a musclebound actor on the cartoon series The Simpsons, is loosely based on Arnold Schwarzenegger. The fairy character of Jorgen Von Strangle in the cartoon show The Fairly OddParents is also modeled loosely on Schwarzenegger… Another famous bodybuilder-turned-actor is Lou Ferrigno.
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Something in Common with Arnold Schwarzenegger
4 Good Links
- Insightful piece from The LA Times, plus a link to his written eulogy for Sargent Shriver
- A recap of his political life, from a larger page of California governors
- Funny, lively page full of chat about his film career
- Archive of recent stories featuring (or mentioning) Schwarzenegger