12 Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (/ˈʃvɑːrtsnɛɡər/;[1][a] German: [ˈaʁnɔlt ˈʃvaʁtsn̩ˌʔɛɡɐ]; born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American politician, actor, filmmaker, businessman, author, and former professional bodybuilder.[2] He served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 to 2011. As of 2019, he is the most recent Republican governor of California.
Schwarzenegger began lifting weights at the age of 15. He won the Mr. Universe title at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times, remaining a prominent presence in bodybuilding and writing many books and articles on the sport. The Arnold Sports Festival, considered the second most important professional bodybuilding event in recent years,[3] is named after him. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time, as well as the sport's most charismatic ambassador.[4]
Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon. His breakthrough film was the sword-and-sorcery epic Conan the Barbarian in 1982, a box-office hit that resulted in a sequel.[5] In 1984, he appeared in the title role of James Cameron's critically and commercially successful science-fiction thriller film The Terminator. He subsequently played a similar Terminator character in most of the franchise's later installments, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Genisys (2015),[5][6][7] and Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). He has appeared in a number of other successful films, such as Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), Twins (1988), Total Recall (1990), Kindergarten Cop (1990), and True Lies (1994). Schwarzenegger married Maria Shriver, a niece of the 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy and daughter of the 1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate and former Ambassador to France Sargent Shriver, in 1986. They separated in 2011 after he admitted to having fathered a child with another woman in 1997;[8] the divorce was finalized in 2017.
As a Republican, Schwarzenegger was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. He was sworn in on November 17, to serve the remainder of Davis' term. He was then re-elected in the 2006 California gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor.[9] In 2011, he completed his second term as governor and returned to acting. Schwarzenegger was nicknamed "the Austrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" or "Schwarzy" during his acting career, "The Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator") during his political career, and is commonly known in Japan as "Shuwa-chan" (シュワちゃん).
Early
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal, Styria[10] to Aurelia (née Jadrny; 1922–1998) and Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–1972). His father was the local chief of police and had served in World War II as a Hauptfeldwebel after voluntarily joining the Nazi Party in 1938.[11] He was wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad,[12] but was discharged in 1943 following a bout of malaria. He married Schwarzenegger's mother on October 20, 1945; he was 38 and she was 23. According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world ... if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared."[13] He grew up in a Catholic family who attended Mass every Sunday.[14][15]
Gustav had a preference for his elder son, Meinhard, over Arnold.[16] His favoritism was "strong and blatant", which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his biological child.[17] Schwarzenegger has said that his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems."[14] He had a good relationship with his mother and kept in touch with her until her death.[18] In later life, he commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of Gustav being involved in atrocities, despite his membership in the Nazi Party and Sturmabteilung (SA).[16] Gustav's background received wide press attention during the 2003 California recall campaign.[19]
At school, Schwarzenegger was reportedly academically average, but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored, and exuberant" character.[14] Money was a problem in their household; Schwarzenegger recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a refrigerator.[17] As a boy, he played several sports, heavily influenced by his father.[14] He picked up his first barbell in 1960, when his soccer coach took his team to a local gym.[10] At the age of 14, he chose bodybuilding over soccer as a career.[5][6] He later said, "I actually started weight training when I was 15, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start olympic lifting."[13] However, his official website biography claims that "at 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career."[20] During a speech in 2001, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school."[21]
Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves, and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen.[13] When Reeves died in 2000, Schwarzenegger fondly remembered him: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed me a sense of what was possible when others around me didn't always understand my dreams. Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz.[10] He was so dedicated as a youngster that he broke into the local gym on weekends, so that he could train even when it was closed. "It would make me sick to miss a workout... I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it." When Schwarzenegger was asked about his first movie experience as a boy, he replied: "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie."[13]
Schwarzenegger's brother, Meinhard, died in a car crash on May 20, 1971.[10] He was driving drunk and died instantly. Schwarzenegger did not attend his funeral. Meinhard was engaged to Erika Knapp, and they had a three-year-old son named Patrick. Schwarzenegger paid for Patrick's education and helped him to move to the U.S.[17] Gustav died on December 13, 1972, from a stroke.[10] In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the film's producer said this story was taken from another bodybuilder to show the extremes some would go to for their sport and to make Schwarzenegger's image colder to create controversy for the film.[22] However, Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, recalled that he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother.[23] Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he was absent from his father's funeral.[17]
In an interview with Fortune in 2004, Schwarzenegger told how he suffered what "would now be called child abuse" at the hands of his father: "My hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door. It was just the way it was. Many of the children I've seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality. They didn't want to create an individual. It was all about conforming. I was one who did not conform, and whose will could not be broken. Therefore, I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone said, 'You can't do this,' I said, 'This is not going to be for much longer because I'm going to move out of here. I want to be rich. I want to be somebody.'"[11]
Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965 to fulfill the one year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian males.[10][20] During his army service, he won the Junior Mr. Europe contest.[6] He went AWOL during basic training so he could take part in the competition and then spent a week in military prison: "Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn't carefully think through the consequences." He entered another bodybuilding contest in Graz, at Steirerhof Hotel, where he placed second. He was voted "best-built man of Europe", which made him famous in bodybuilding circles. "The Mr. Universe title was my ticket to America—the land of opportunity, where I could become a star and get rich."[21] Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966, attending the NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London.[20] He would come in second in the Mr. Universe competition, not having the muscle definition of American winner Chester Yorton.[20]
Charles "Wag" Bennett, one of the judges at the 1966 competition, was impressed with Schwarzenegger and he offered to coach him. As Schwarzenegger had little money, Bennett invited him to stay in his crowded family home above one of his two gyms in Forest Gate, London. Yorton's leg definition had been judged superior, and Schwarzenegger, under a training program devised by Bennett, concentrated on improving the muscle definition and power in his legs. Staying in the East End of London helped Schwarzenegger improve his rudimentary grasp of the English language.[24][25] Living with the Bennetts also changed him as a person: "Being with them made me so much more sophisticated. When you're the age I was then, you're always looking for approval, for love, for attention and also for guidance. At the time, I wasn't really aware of that. But now, looking back, I see that the Bennett family fulfilled all those needs. Especially my need to be the best in the world. To be recognized and to feel unique and special. They saw that I needed that care and attention and love."[26]
Also in 1966, while at Bennett's home, Schwarzenegger had the opportunity to meet childhood idol Reg Park, who became his friend and mentor.[26][27] The training paid off and, in 1967, Schwarzenegger won the title for the first time, becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20.[20] He would go on to win the title a further three times.[6] Schwarzenegger then flew back to Munich, where he attended a business school and worked in a health club (Rolf Putziger's gym, where he worked and trained from 1966 to 1968), returning in 1968 to London to win his next Mr. Universe title.[20] He frequently told Roger C. Field, his English coach and friend in Munich at that time, "I'm going to become the greatest actor!"[28]
Schwarzenegger, who dreamed of moving to the U.S. since the age of 10, and saw bodybuilding as the avenue through which to do so,[29] realized his dream by moving to the United States in October 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English.[6][10] There he trained at Gold's Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, California, under Joe Weider's supervision. From 1970 to 1974, one of Schwarzenegger's weight training partners was Ric Drasin, a professional wrestler who designed the original Gold's Gym logo in 1973.[30] Schwarzenegger also became good friends with professional wrestler Superstar Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, he captured his first Mr. Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title a total of seven times.[20]
The immigration law firm Siskind & Susser has stated that Schwarzenegger may have been an illegal immigrant at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s because of violations in the terms of his visa.[31] LA Weekly would later say in 2002 that Schwarzenegger is the most famous immigrant in America, who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s".[29]
In 1977, Schwarzenegger's autobiography/weight-training guide Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder became a huge success.[10] In 1977 he posed for the gay magazine After Dark.[32][33] Due to taking an assortment of courses at Santa Monica College in California (including English classes), as well as further upper division classes at the University of California, Los Angeles as part of UCLA's extension program, Schwarzenegger had by then accumulated enough credits so as to be "within striking distance" of graduation. In 1979 he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin–Superior as a distance education student, completing most of his coursework by correspondence and flying out to Superior in order to meet professors and take final exams. In May 1980, he formally graduated and received his bachelor's degree in business administration and marketing. He got his United States citizenship in 1983.[34]
Schwarzenegger said that during this time he encountered a friend who told him he was teaching Transcendental Meditation (TM), which prompted Schwarzenegger to reveal that he had been struggling with anxiety for the first time in his life: "Even today, I still benefit from [the year of TM] because I don't merge and bring things together and see everything as one big problem."[35]
