Arnold Schwarzenegger Biography

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

Date of Birth: July 30, 1947

"You have to be very careful to make pictures not just for yourself, but for the people," says Arnold Schwarzenegger. And that he has done. In spades.

People laughed at the body-building hunk from Graz, Austria, when he set his sights on being a Hollywood star. But they're not laughing anymore and haven't been for some time now.

Schwarzenegger has an indomitable will to succeed as he made clear when he decided in his teens to use body-building as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. At 20, he became the youngest Mr. Universe ever. A year later he starred in his first movie. Granted, it wasn't that good a movie. But he'd begun his climb to the top. Not that he needed the money. Before his mega-successful movie career, Schwarzenegger had already made himself into a millionaire with his real estate dealings and mail-order business selling fitness books and cassette tapes, all the while completing a correspondence courses from the University of Wisconsin which ended in his bachelor's degree in business and international economics.

By the time the body-building documentary Pumping Iron made him a national celebrity, Schwarzenegger was already tooling around Los Angeles in a Mercedes Benz and living in a $200,000 house. Like few pumped-up action stars before him, Schwarzenegger has also been able to combine light comedy with his more muscle-bound roles, scoring box office hits in the process with such films as Twins and Kindergarten Cop. The Terminator (1984) was a huge hit that spawned two sequels—Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).

He married to Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy clan, in 1986 and it seemed that his wife's political genes may have run off on Schwarzenegger, although unlike Shriver's uncles, Robert and John F. Kennedy, Schwarzenegger is a Republican. After being elected Governor of California on October 7, 2003, he put his movie career on hold to fulfill his political duties.

In May 2011, Shriver and Schwarzenegger separated after it was revealed in the media that he had fathered a son over 14 years earlier with a woman who had worked as a housekeeper in their home. Although Schwarzenegger reportedly spent a lot of time the child, the boy never knew who his real father was until the story was covered by the press.

In 2010, Schwarzenegger returned to the big screen with a small, uncredited role in the action film The Expendables. He went on to reprise his character, Trench, for the sequel The Expendables 2 (2012) and The Expendables 3 (2014).

Schwarzenegger reunited with Sylvester Stallone in the action movie Escape Plan (2013). Then, thanks to Terminator Genisys (2015), the former "Mr. Universe" returned to the Terminator franchise that propelled his career in Hollywood. Also in 2015, he was confronted with a zombie attack in Maggie (2015), a horror drama in which Abigail Breslin played the title role.

Then, it was yet another return to the Terminator. The story of the blockbuster Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)—partly imagined by Canadian James Cameron and directed by Tim Miller—starred not only Schwarzenegger, but also Linda Hamilton and Mackenzie Davis.

Filmography:

Aftermath (2017)
Terminator Genisys (2015)
Maggie (2015)
The Expendables 3 (2014)
Sabotage (2014)
Ten (2014) (2014)
Escape Plan (2013)
The Last Stand (2013)
The Expendables 2 (2012)
The Expendables (2010) (uncredited)
Around the World in 80 Days (2004)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Collateral Damage (2002)
Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice) (uncredited)
The 6th Day (2000)
End of Days (1999)
Junket Whore (1998)
Batman & Robin (1997)
Eraser (1996)
Jingle All the Way (1996)
Beretta's Island (1994)
A Century of Cinema (1994)
Junior (1994)
True Lies (1994)
Dave (1993)
Last Action Hero (1993)
Feed (1992)
The Last Party (1993) (uncredited)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Total Recall (1990)
Red Heat (1988)
Twins (1988)
Predator (1987)
The Running Man (1987)
Raw Deal (1986)
Commando (1985)
Red Sonja (1985)
Conan the Destroyer (1984)
The Terminator (1984)
Conan the Barbarian (1981)
Scavenger Hunt (1979)
The Villain (1979)
Pumping Iron (1977)
Stay Hungry (1976)
The Long Goodbye (1973) (uncredited)
Hercules in New York (1970)