| Date of Birth | 30 July 1947 , Thal, Styria, Austria |
| Birth Name | Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger |
| Nicknames | Arnie Austrian Oak Conan the Republican Styrian Oak The Governator The Running Man Conan the Governor The Machine |
| Height | 6' 2" (1.88 m) |
Mini Bio (3)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is an Austrian/American actor,
politician and businessman who started his career out as a
weight-lifter. Born July 30, 1947 in Thal, Styria, Austria,
Schwarzenegger with a keen interest in physical fitness and seemingly
indomitable drive, parlayed his notoriety as a five-time Mr. Universe
and seven-time Mr. Olympia champion to turn himself into a Hollywood
movie star and public personality. After a series of false starts as the
dumb-beefcake in several poor films Schwarzenegger got his big break in
the title role of director John Milius's Conan the Barbarian (1982). Several sequels followed but the actor wisely played against the heroic type to take the eponymous villain role in The Terminator
(1984) with director 'James Cameron' and making the line, "I'll be
back" a catch-phrase of the mid-80s. Schwarzenegger solidified his place
as an action hero in films like Predator (1987), Total Recall (1990), _Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992)_ and True Lies (1994), but proved to have wider range than anyone expected by pulling off comedic roles too, which he did in Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990), and others. In April, 1986 he married TV correspondent, Maria Shriver
(a relation to the Kennedy political dynasty) and the couple had 4
children. Eventually a string of less-than-successfully received
pictures, such as Jingle All the Way (1996), Eraser (1996), End of Days (1999), The 6th Day (2000), and Collateral Damage (2002) proved that the "Austrian Oak," as he had been nicknamed during his weight-lifting years, could be felled.
In October of 2003 Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, was elected Governor of California in a special recall election of then governor Gray Davis. The "Governator," as Schwarzenegger came to be called, held the office until 2011. Upon leaving the Governor's mansion it was revealed that he had fathered a child with the family's live-in maid and Shriver filed for divorce.
He is currently in The Expendables 2 (2012) and expected to next be seen in The Last Stand (2013), Escape Plan (2013) and The Unknown Soldier.
In October of 2003 Schwarzenegger, running as a Republican, was elected Governor of California in a special recall election of then governor Gray Davis. The "Governator," as Schwarzenegger came to be called, held the office until 2011. Upon leaving the Governor's mansion it was revealed that he had fathered a child with the family's live-in maid and Shriver filed for divorce.
He is currently in The Expendables 2 (2012) and expected to next be seen in The Last Stand (2013), Escape Plan (2013) and The Unknown Soldier.
Growing up in a small, isolated village in Austria, he turned
to bodybuilding as his ticket to a better life. Prior to that he served a
mandatory one year in the Austrian military (beginning in 1965). After
conquering the world as arguably the greatest bodybuilder who ever
lived, he went to America to make his name in motion pictures. Hampered
by his impossible name and thick accent, success eluded him for many
years. It wasn't until he found the tailor-made role of Conan that he
truly came into his own as a performer. A succession of over-the-top
action films made him an international box office star. By alternating
violent action films with lighter, comedic fare, he has solidified his
position as one of the most popular - if not the most popular - movie
stars in the world. After his long, and successful movie career, he ran
in the California recall. He is now the Governor of California, yet
another celebrity to be elected to the position.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Montgomery < djmont@aol.com>
- IMDb Mini Biography By: David Montgomery < djmont@aol.com>
With an almost unpronounceable surname and a thick Austrian
accent, who would have ever believed that a brash, quick talking
bodybuilder from a small European village would become one of
Hollywood's biggest stars, marry into the prestigious Kennedy family,
amass a fortune via shrewd investments and one day be the Governor of
California!?
The amazing story of uber-star Arnold Schwarzenegger is a true "rags to riches" story of the penniless immigrant making it in the land of opportunity, the United States of America. Arnold was born on July 30th, 1947 in the town of Thal, Austria and, from a young age, he took a keen interest in physical fitness and bodybuilding, going on to compete in several minor contests in Europe. However, it was when he emigrated to the United States in 1968 at the tender age of 21 that his star began to rise. Up until the early 1970's, bodybuilding had been viewed as a rather oddball sport, or even a mis-understood "freak show" by the general public, however two entrepreneurial Canadian brothers Ben Weider and Joe Weider set about broadening the appeal of "pumping iron" and getting the sport respect, and what better poster boy could they have to lead the charge, then the incredible "Austrian Oak", Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over roughly the next decade, beginning in 1970, Schwarzenegger dominated the sport of competitive bodybuilding winning five Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles and, with it, he made himself a major sports icon, he generated a new international audience for bodybuilding, gym memberships worldwide swelled by the tens of thousands and the Weider sports business empire flourished beyond belief and reached out to all corners of the globe.
However, Schwarzenegger's horizons were bigger than just the landscape of bodybuilding and he debuted on screen as "Arnold Strong" in the low budget Hercules in New York (1969), then director Bob Rafelson cast Arnold in Stay Hungry (1976) alongside Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, for which Arnold won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture". The mesmerizing Pumping Iron (1977) covering the 1975 Mr Olympia contest in South Africa has since gone on to become one of the key sports documentaries of the 20th century, plus Arnold landed other acting roles in the comedy The Villain (1979) opposite Kirk Douglas, and he portrayed Mickey Hargitay in the well- received TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980). But, what Arnold really needed was a super hero / warrior style role in a lavish production that utilized his chiseled physique, and gave him room to show off his growing acting talents and quirky humor.
Conan the Barbarian (1982) was just that role. Inspired by the Robert E. Howard short stories of the "Hyborean Age" and directed by gung ho director John Milius, and with a largely unknown cast, save Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones, "Conan" was a smash hit worldwide and an inferior, although still enjoyable sequel titled Conan the Destroyer (1984) quickly followed. If "Conan" was the kick start to Arnold's movie career, then his next role was to put the pedal to the floor and accelerate his star status into overdrive. Director James Cameron had until that time only previously directed one earlier feature film titled Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981),
The spectacular Total Recall (1990) and "feel good" Kindergarten Cop (1990) were both solid box office performers for Arnold, plus he was about to return to familiar territory with director James Cameron in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The second time around for the futuristic robot, the production budget had grown from the initial film's $6.5 million to an alleged $100 million for the sequel, and it clearly showed as the stunning sequel bristled with amazing special effects, bone-crunching chases & stunt sequences, plus state of the art computer-generated imagery. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was arguably the zenith of Arnold's film career to date and he was voted "International Star of the Decade" by the National Association of Theatre Owners. Remarkably, his next film Last Action Hero (1993) brought Arnold back to Earth with a hard thud as the self-satirizing, but confusing plot line of a young boy entering into a mythical Hollywood action film confused movie fans even more and they stayed away in droves making the film an initial financial disaster. Arnold turned back to good friend, director James Cameron and the chemistry was definitely still there as the "James Bond" style spy thriller True Lies (1994) co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold was the surprise hit of 1994!
Following the broad audience appeal of True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger decided to lean towards more family-themed entertainment with Junior (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996), but he still found time to satisfy his hard-core fan base with Eraser (1996), as the chilling "Mr. Freeze" in Batman & Robin (1997) and battling dark forces in the supernatural action of End of Days (1999). The science fiction / conspiracy tale The 6th Day (2000) played to only mediocre fan interest, and Collateral Damage (2002) had it's theatrical release held over for nearly a year after the tragic events of Sept 11th 2001, but it still only received a lukewarm reception. It was time again to resurrect Arnold's most successful franchise and, in 2003, Schwarzenegger pulled on the biker leathers for the third time for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Unfortunately, directorial duties passed from James Cameron to Jonathan Mostow and the deletion of the character of "Sarah Connor" aka Linda Hamilton and a change in the actor playing "John Connor" - Nick Stahl took over from Edward Furlong - making the third entry in the "Terminator" series the weakest to date.
Schwarzenegger contributed cameo roles to The Rundown (2003), Around the World in 80 Days (2004) and The Kid & I (2005) and took political office in 2003 as the Governor of California, effectively suspending his film career for the foreseeable future.
Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver in April, 1986 and the couple have four children.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: davesusanv@gmail.com
The amazing story of uber-star Arnold Schwarzenegger is a true "rags to riches" story of the penniless immigrant making it in the land of opportunity, the United States of America. Arnold was born on July 30th, 1947 in the town of Thal, Austria and, from a young age, he took a keen interest in physical fitness and bodybuilding, going on to compete in several minor contests in Europe. However, it was when he emigrated to the United States in 1968 at the tender age of 21 that his star began to rise. Up until the early 1970's, bodybuilding had been viewed as a rather oddball sport, or even a mis-understood "freak show" by the general public, however two entrepreneurial Canadian brothers Ben Weider and Joe Weider set about broadening the appeal of "pumping iron" and getting the sport respect, and what better poster boy could they have to lead the charge, then the incredible "Austrian Oak", Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over roughly the next decade, beginning in 1970, Schwarzenegger dominated the sport of competitive bodybuilding winning five Mr. Universe titles and seven Mr. Olympia titles and, with it, he made himself a major sports icon, he generated a new international audience for bodybuilding, gym memberships worldwide swelled by the tens of thousands and the Weider sports business empire flourished beyond belief and reached out to all corners of the globe.
However, Schwarzenegger's horizons were bigger than just the landscape of bodybuilding and he debuted on screen as "Arnold Strong" in the low budget Hercules in New York (1969), then director Bob Rafelson cast Arnold in Stay Hungry (1976) alongside Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, for which Arnold won a Golden Globe Award for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture". The mesmerizing Pumping Iron (1977) covering the 1975 Mr Olympia contest in South Africa has since gone on to become one of the key sports documentaries of the 20th century, plus Arnold landed other acting roles in the comedy The Villain (1979) opposite Kirk Douglas, and he portrayed Mickey Hargitay in the well- received TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980). But, what Arnold really needed was a super hero / warrior style role in a lavish production that utilized his chiseled physique, and gave him room to show off his growing acting talents and quirky humor.
Conan the Barbarian (1982) was just that role. Inspired by the Robert E. Howard short stories of the "Hyborean Age" and directed by gung ho director John Milius, and with a largely unknown cast, save Max von Sydow and James Earl Jones, "Conan" was a smash hit worldwide and an inferior, although still enjoyable sequel titled Conan the Destroyer (1984) quickly followed. If "Conan" was the kick start to Arnold's movie career, then his next role was to put the pedal to the floor and accelerate his star status into overdrive. Director James Cameron had until that time only previously directed one earlier feature film titled Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981),
- which stank of rotten fish from start to finish - however Cameron had
The spectacular Total Recall (1990) and "feel good" Kindergarten Cop (1990) were both solid box office performers for Arnold, plus he was about to return to familiar territory with director James Cameron in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). The second time around for the futuristic robot, the production budget had grown from the initial film's $6.5 million to an alleged $100 million for the sequel, and it clearly showed as the stunning sequel bristled with amazing special effects, bone-crunching chases & stunt sequences, plus state of the art computer-generated imagery. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was arguably the zenith of Arnold's film career to date and he was voted "International Star of the Decade" by the National Association of Theatre Owners. Remarkably, his next film Last Action Hero (1993) brought Arnold back to Earth with a hard thud as the self-satirizing, but confusing plot line of a young boy entering into a mythical Hollywood action film confused movie fans even more and they stayed away in droves making the film an initial financial disaster. Arnold turned back to good friend, director James Cameron and the chemistry was definitely still there as the "James Bond" style spy thriller True Lies (1994) co-starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Arnold was the surprise hit of 1994!
Following the broad audience appeal of True Lies (1994), Schwarzenegger decided to lean towards more family-themed entertainment with Junior (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996), but he still found time to satisfy his hard-core fan base with Eraser (1996), as the chilling "Mr. Freeze" in Batman & Robin (1997) and battling dark forces in the supernatural action of End of Days (1999). The science fiction / conspiracy tale The 6th Day (2000) played to only mediocre fan interest, and Collateral Damage (2002) had it's theatrical release held over for nearly a year after the tragic events of Sept 11th 2001, but it still only received a lukewarm reception. It was time again to resurrect Arnold's most successful franchise and, in 2003, Schwarzenegger pulled on the biker leathers for the third time for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Unfortunately, directorial duties passed from James Cameron to Jonathan Mostow and the deletion of the character of "Sarah Connor" aka Linda Hamilton and a change in the actor playing "John Connor" - Nick Stahl took over from Edward Furlong - making the third entry in the "Terminator" series the weakest to date.
Schwarzenegger contributed cameo roles to The Rundown (2003), Around the World in 80 Days (2004) and The Kid & I (2005) and took political office in 2003 as the Governor of California, effectively suspending his film career for the foreseeable future.
Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria Shriver in April, 1986 and the couple have four children.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: davesusanv@gmail.com
Spouse (1)
| Maria Shriver | (26 April 1986 - present) (filed for divorce) (4 children) |
Trade Mark (9)
Frequent movie line: "I'll be back."
Often has his character say comedic one-liners that punctuate the action
Many of his films have his characters doing feats of strength to match his muscular look, e.g. Commando (1985) where he is first seen in the film carrying a whole tree trunk on his shoulder.
Frequently has some type of action scene in bathrooms. (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), True Lies (1994) and Kindergarten Cop (1990).
Films often have a chase sequence or action scene in a shopping mall. (Commando (1985), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994) and Jingle All the Way (1996)).
His characters are often family men who are protecting their children and his other characters often smoke cigars.
Heavy Austrian accent
Deep resonant voice
Very muscular physique
Trivia (135)
October 1997: Ranked #20 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list.
Children with Maria Shriver: Katherine Schwarzenegger (born on December 13, 1989), Christina Maria Aurelia (born on July 23, 1991), Patrick Schwarzenegger
(born on September 18, 1993) and Christopher Sargent Shriver (born on
September 27, 1997). Joseph Baena, born on October 2, 1997 with Mildred
Patricia Baena who was housekeeper in the family until 2011.
April 1997: Underwent heart surgery to correct a congenital heart valve condition.
Called by the Guinness Book of World Records, "the most perfectly developed man in the history of the world."
Noted fan of cigar smoking.
His voice in Hercules in New York (1969) was dubbed.
Was part-owner of Planet Hollywood and Schatzi restaurants.
Advocate for the Republican party.
He reprised his Terminator character for the theme park attraction T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996), a short film which uses an enhanced 3-D process that makes the film really appear to jump out at the audience.
His production company is Oak Productions.
1983: Became a US citizen.
His wife Maria Shriver is a niece of the late President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Ted Kennedy.
1979: Graduated from University of Wisconsin-Superior with a major
in international marketing of fitness and business administration.
2000: Sold off his Planet Hollywood stock and is no longer a part owner of the chain.
The soccer stadium in Graz, Austria (his home town) is named after him.
Was considered for the title role in the 1970s TV series The Incredible Hulk (1978), but was reportedly deemed not tall enough. His former bodybuilding competitor, Lou Ferrigno, ultimately won the part.
After leaving Austria for the first time, he came to England to work, earning under £30 a week.
1996: Received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, the
University of Wisconsin-Superior, in recognition of his charitable
works.
Son-in-law of Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
At his bodybuilding peak his chest was 57", waist 34", biceps 22",
thighs 28½", calves 20", and his competition weight was 235 lbs (260
lbs off-season).
September 2001: He and Warner Bros. agreed to postpone the release of Collateral Damage
(2002) indefinitely in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks
on America. The plot centers around a firefighter who lost his family
in a terrorist bomb attack.
9/7/01: Sues International Game Technology for the unauthorized
use of his voice and likeness in slot machine games. His lawyer told the
press he was seeking $20 million in damages, which is the amount he
believes he would have received had he approved the use.
Childhood friends stated that he often said his goals in life were
to move to America, become an actor, and marry a Kennedy. He
accomplished all three.
Underwent a genioplasty -- a procedure in which his jaw has been moved back so that it no longer juts out.
Was the first private citizen in the U.S. to own a Humvee (High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle).
May 2002: Lobbied to promote anti-juvenile delinquency initiative
on California ballot that would commit the state to allocate $400
million for extracurricular activities and tutoring for students,
kindergarten through ninth grade.
June 2002: Received an honorary doctorate from Chapman University in Orange, CA.
Franco Columbu was best man at Arnold's wedding.
1/29/03: Underwent surgery for a torn rotator cuff as a result of an injury on the set of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Was in a sling for three to four weeks, but it was not expected to delay the completion of the movie.
2003: Ranked #9 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s.
The character Rainier Wolfecastle in The Simpsons (1989) is based on him.
Won Mr. Olympia title seven times (1970-1975, 1980).
James Cameron originally wanted him for the role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator
(1984), but after reading the script, Arnold asked Cameron to let him
play the part of the Machine. Cameron replied "No, no! Reese is the
star! He's the big hero! And the Terminator hardly has any lines!" but
Arnold asked him to "trust me".
8/6/03: Announced his candidacy for the Governorship of California on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992).
Suffered a back injury (among other various assorted injuries) while filming Conan the Barbarian (1982) when the dogs who were chasing him jumped him from behind and he fell down the rock he was climbing to escape them.
In Demolition Man (1993), Sandra Bullock's character Lenina Huxley is telling Sylvester Stallone's
character John Spartan about the Arnold Schwarzenegger Presidential
Library, explaining that, based on the sheer popularity of
Schwarzenegger's movies, a Constitutional amendment was passed in order
for Schwarzenegger to run for President, which, according to Huxley, he
did. In 2003, ten years after this film's release, Schwarzenegger ran
for the office of Governor of California, and won the election on 7
October 2003. While Schwarzenegger is not eligible to run for the
presidency by present laws (as a naturalized citizen, not a native-born
citizen as required by the Constitution), most past presidents have been
governors of their respective home states. Some members of Congress are
currently considering an amendment to the Constitution to allow
foreign-born US citizens to be allowed to run for the Presidency,
specifically with Schwarzenegger in mind, although other members of
Congress are strongly opposed to the idea.
Had one elder brother, Meinhard (1946-1971).
His mother was Aurelia Jadrny (2 July 1922 - 2 August 1998) and
his father was Gustav Schwarzenegger (Graz, 17 August 1907 - 1 December
1972), married in Murzsteg, 20 October 1945. His mother's surname is
Czech.
10/7/03: Was elected Governor of California as a Republican.
Turned down the role of John McClane in Die Hard (1988). The role went to Bruce Willis
instead. Ironically, Willis has a line in the film where he says that
the terrorists "have enough explosives to orbit Arnold Schwarzenegger".
TV Guide selected Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) to run for Governor of California as the greatest TV moment of 2003.
Said that filming the climatic fight at the end of Predator (1987) was made difficult by the fact that the late Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator, couldn't see through his mask.
Has the record for winning the most major bodybuilding events in
history, 13 (1 Mr. Junior Western Europe, 7 Mr. Olympias, and 5 Mr.
Universes).
After he had started lifting weights as a teenager, he noticed
that his body was becoming disproportionate. His arms, shoulders and
chest were developing nicely, but his calves and lower legs weren't
coming along as he wanted. To motivate himself to work harder on his
calves, he cut off all of his pants (trousers) at the knee. Walking
around like that, people would look at (and maybe even laugh at) the big
man with 'chicken' legs. It worked.
His father, Gustav Schwarzenegger, nicknamed him "Cinderella" as a
child and his older brother, Meinhard, constantly picked on him growing
up. Both men were killed while driving under the influence.
Only the second governor in California's history to be born in a
foreign country. John Downey, the 7th Governor of California, was born
in Ireland and served from 1860-1862.
Has his look-alike puppet in the French show Les guignols de l'info (1988).
Went AWOL from the Austrian army to enter his first bodybuilding contest.
Stumped for President George W. Bush the weekend before his re-election in Ohio, as Schwarzenegger has always had a strong relationship with Ohio.
He was voted the 53rd Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Has played a character who died in only four of his films: The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), End of Days (1999) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).
Was considered for the role of the gentle giant Fezzik in the 1970s when William Goldman's book "The Princess Bride" was first proposed to be made into a film (The Princess Bride (1987)).
Had his first romantic scene in a movie with actress Sandahl Bergman, in Conan the Barbarian (1982).
Is good friends with fellow bodybuilder Sven-Ole Thorsen who, ironically, portrayed "Thorgrim," one of his leading foes, in Conan the Barbarian (1982).
Turned down a request to reprise his Conan character in Kull the Conqueror (1997) (originally titled "Conan the Conqueror"). Also, he was supposed to play Conan in Red Sonja (1985), though ultimately, a new character was created who was essentially Conan in everything but name.
Is the only person to receive Razzie nominations for Worst Actor,
Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Screen Couple (with himself cloned) in
the same year. All for the same movie, The 6th Day (2000).
His life strangely mirrors the life of Conan from Conan the Barbarian
(1982). Conan was born in a small village and grew up to be a
physically powerful man, due to years of slavery. After winning great
fame as a gladiator, he is given to wine and women, but later rejects
this hedonistic lifestyle and goes on to perform great heroic feats and
eventually is crowned king. Arnold was born in a small Austrian town and
took up weightlifting as he got older. After achieving success as a
bodybuilder, he indulged in drug abuse and womanizing, but he later
rejected this and went on to become a vocal supporter of social causes,
and was eventually elected governor of California.
Performed many of his own stunts in his films, owing largely to
the fact that it was hard to find stunt doubles who matched his size. Billy D. Lucas, Joel Kramer and Peter Kent eventually became his personal stunt doubles and close friends.
His famous line "I'll be back", which originated from The Terminator (1984), was originally written as "I'll come back".
Initially refused to star in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) because James Cameron,
who created the character and directed the first two films, would not
be directing the third installment. Arnold tried to persuade Cameron to
do the third film but Cameron declined and, feeling that the Terminator
character was as much Arnold's as it was his own, Cameron advised Arnold
to just do the third film and ask for a lot of money.
While filming the behind the scenes documentary for the special edition DVD of Conan the Barbarian
(1982), the microphone hit him in the head at the end of the interview,
to which he immediately joked "You see, I can't even do an interview
about Conan without getting hurt".
2004: Addressed the Republican National Convention.
The etymology for Arnold is "Eagle Power."
Grew up in a house that had no phone, no fridge and no toilet.
Was the spokesperson for Japanese DirecTV, a competitor to Quentin Tarantino's endorsed local satellite TV operator SkyperfecTV.
Was considered for the title role in Flash Gordon (1980). The part eventually went to Sam J. Jones instead, because producer Dino De Laurentiis
felt Schwarzenegger's German accent was ill-suited for this role.
DeLaurentiis (in his heavy Italian accent) told Schwarzenegger, "You
have an accent! I cannot use you for Flash Gordon! No! Flash Gordon has
no accent! I cannot use you! No!" Ironically, Jones had to temporarily
get rid of his own Texas accent for said role.
While filming Predator (1987) he became close friends with co- star Jesse Ventura, who was also later elected a state governor (Minnesota).
John Milius originally intended him to do the narration of Conan the Barbarian (1982) but the studio didn't trust his accent, so the narration was performed by Mako instead, who played the wizard.
Withdrew from the city of Graz the right to use his name in
association with its soccer stadium and returned his "Ehrenring" (ring
of honor) after some politicians in the town had started a campaign
against Schwarzenegger due to his refusal to stop the execution of
convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams (20 December 2005).
The Green Party of Austria has resolved to strip Schwarzenegger of
his Austrian citizenship due to his support for the death penalty.
12/12/05: As governor, he refused to grant clemency to convicted quadruple murderer and former gang leader Stanley Tookie Williams, who had been on Death Row for 24 years.
November 2005: He was soundly defeated on all four propositions of
his "special election", which cost the state of California an estimated
$45 million. Schwarzenegger accepted personal responsibility for the
defeat, and appointed a Democrat as his new Chief of Staff.
Second actor to be elected Governor of California. The first was Ronald Reagan.
December 2001: Broke six ribs in a motorcycle crash.
February 2005: He and his 12-year-old son Patrick were injured in a
traffic accident when a car ran into Arnold's motorcycle. Patrick was
in a sidecar. Arnold received 15 stitches.
He has been nominated for a Razzie Award as Worst Actor eight
times during his career, and in 2004 received a special award for being
the "Worst Razzie Loser of Our First 25 Years."
His performance as The Terminator in the "Terminator" films is
ranked #40 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All
Time.
Was asked to reprise his "Dutch" character from the first Predator (1987) film for the sequel, but he declined because he didn't like the script. He chose to do Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) instead.
Children - Katherine Eunice (born December 13, 1989), Christina
Maria Aurelia (born July 23, 1991), Patrick Arnold (born September 18,
1993) and Christopher Sargent Shriver (September 27, 1997).
Was asked to appear in a sequel to his 1985 film Commando (1985) but declined.
He keeps the sword he used in Conan the Barbarian (1982) in the Governor's office in California.
Is a huge fan of professional wrestling.
11/7/06: Easily re-elected as Governor of California.
He is the first member of the Kennedy family to become a state Governor.
12/23/06: Broke his right femur while skiing in Sun Valley, ID.
Although German is his native language, all his movies have been dubbed into German by Thomas Danneberg for the German-speaking market because his strong Austrian accent doesn't fit with the type of roles he plays.
1992: He joined President George Bush in New Hampshire and asked voters to "send a message to Pat Buchanan: Hasta la vista, baby".
Related to actor George Wyner, who is also a close friend.
Early in his career he appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game (1965).
Was considered for the role of Judge Dredd in Judge Dredd (1995) in the early development stages. The part went to fellow Planet Hollywood founder Sylvester Stallone.
In his childhood considered John Wayne his idol and role model. As Governor of California, he issued a proclamation making 26 May 2007 "John Wayne Day" in the state.
Producer Joel Silver wanted Schwarzenegger to play "Doctor Manhattan" in a film adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen (2009) at one point.
Acted with another future governor, Jesse Ventura, of Minnesota, in Predator (1987) and The Running Man (1987).
Had stitches in his hand from the taking-off-airplane-to-tarmac stunt he performed for Commando (1985).
Late October 2007: Personally flew to Malibu, CA, to survey the
damage done by wildfires before any other politician, including the
President.
Was attached to do another film adaptation of the pulp hero Doc
Savage (after the failed 1975 film) in the late 1990s, but the project
never got off the ground.
Publicly endorsed his close friend Senator John McCain's bid to win the Republican nomination for the 2008 presidential election.
He ended his association with Planet Hollywood early in 2000,
saying the investment had not had the level of success he had expected.
He saved a man's life while on vacation in Hawaii in 2004 by swimming into the sea to rescue him from drowning.
Considered for the role of "Robert Neville" in I Am Legend (2007) back in 1996, with Ridley Scott as the director.
As an environmentally conscious politician, always uses carbon
credits when flying between his governor's office in Sacramento to his
house in L.A., California.
Turned down the role of Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket (1987) and opted to do The Running Man (1987) instead.
Considered for the main role in Strange Days (1995) but the job went to Ralph Fiennes instead.
Was the original choice to play the title character in RoboCop (1987).
Attended the funeral of Ronald Reagan in 2004, whom he considered a great hero.
Due to the dismal failure of Conan the Destroyer (1984), Schwarzenegger rarely ever did sequels to his own movies. He's turned down sequels to Commando (1985), Predator (1987), Total Recall (1990) and True Lies (1994), as well as the third Conan film which became Kull the Conqueror (1997). The only exception he ever made was Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003).
Honored by the Congressional Award in Washington, DC on June 25,
2002 with the Horizon Award. The Horizon Award is a special recognition
from the Joint Leadership of the United States Congress and the
Congressional Award Board of Directors. The Horizon Award is presented
to individuals from the private sectors who have contributed to
expanding opportunities for all Americans through their own personal
contributions, and who have set exceptional examples for young people
through their successes in life.
Was good friends with WWE Hall of Famer André the Giant.
With the exception of Around the World in 80 Days
(2004), in which he only appeared in a supporting role, has starred in
three movies with the word "Day" in the title, and all three make a
biblical reference: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), End of Days (1999) and The 6th Day (2000).
Has been crucified in two movies: Conan the Barbarian (1982) and End of Days (1999), where he was tied to a cross.
Was seriously considered for the role of "Dr. Manhattan/Jon Osterman" in one of the many failed attempts at adapting Alan Moore's "Watchmen" into film. Ultimately, director Zack Snyder cast Billy Crudup for the 2009 adaptation.
The character "Arnold the Pitbull", featured on Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), voiced by Rob Paulsen, was a parody of him.
Was considered for the role of Harry Stamper in Armageddon (1998).
Was considered for the role of President James Mitchell in Air Force One (1997).
Lives in Los Angeles, California and Ketchum, Idaho.
Before he became a household name, Schwarzenegger appeared with bodybuilding buddies Franco Columbu and Frank Zane on the sleeve of Grand Funk Railroad's 1974 album "All the Girls in the World Beware!!!" Band member faces were cleverly superimposed on their muscle-bound bodies.
Appeared on the cover of GQ magazine three times: July '86, May '90 and June '93.
Trophies won as athlete: 1965 Mr. Europe Jr.. Held in Germany.
1966 Best Builed Man of Europe/Mr. Europe/International
Powerlifting-Championship/. All 3 events held in Germany. 1967 NABBA Mr.
Universe Amateurs. Held in London. 1968 NABBA Mr. Universe
Proffesional. Held in London. 1968 National Championship Weightlifting.
Held in Germany. 1968 IFBB Mr. International. Held in Mexico. 1969 IFBB
Mr. Universe Amateurs. Held in New York. 1969/1970 NABBA Mr. Universe
Proffesional. Both times held in London. 1970 Mr. World. Held in
Columbus, Ohio. 1970-1975 5 times in a row IFBB Mr. Olympia. Held in New
York 1970/1973/1974, Paris 1971, Essen 1972, Pretoria 1975. 1980 For
the 6th time IFBB Mr. Olympia. Held in Sydney, Australia.
In his body building days, he once bench pressed as much as 450 pounds.
While in office as governor, a Burger King promotion poster for
the triple whopper stated "it's so big and beefy it just might run for
governor".
The name Schwarzenegger means "black plough man" in German.
Parents feared he was gay when he was a teenager because he
worshipped bodybuilders. His mother Aurelia phoned a doctor because she
thought her son was 'turning south' due to all the pictures of oiled up
males on his bedroom walls.
In 1968 Joe Weider
brought Schwarzenegger to Los Angeles and gave him $100 a week to write
articles for his magazines that endorsed Weider products. Weider died
at age 93 in March 2013.
In recognition of his unparalleled achievements in bodybuilding
and lifelong devotion to physical fitness, he was inducted into the
National Fitness Hall of Fame in 2005. Being its first class, that makes
him a Charter Member.
Is now the Republican Governor-elect of California [October 2003]
Sofia, Bulgaria: Filming The Expendables 2 (2012). [October 2011]
(around Christmas) Broke his leg when skiing with his family in Sun Valley, Idaho, USA. [December 2006]
Refused to take the salary for Governor of California. Uses private jet at his own expense. [December 2003]
Copenhagen, Denmark: Giving out the Sustainia Award, which
recognizes outstanding performance within the area of sustainability.
Also attended a book signing for his new autobiography. [October 2012]
(17 November 2003) Sworn in as Governor of California. [November 2003]
Reelected as Governor of California [November 2006]
Running for Governor of California on the Republican ticket. [August 2003]
Release of the book, "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger" by Laurence Leamer.
First introduced to wife-to-be Maria Shriver by NBC's Tom Brokaw at a charity tennis tournament in 1977.
He passed on lead roles in The Saint (1997) and The Rock (1996). He later stated he regretted passing on the former role.
Personal Quotes (438)
I was always interested in proportion and perfection. When I was
15 I took off my clothes and looked in the mirror. When I stared at
myself naked, I realized that to be perfectly proportioned I would need
20-inch arms to match the rest of me.
[Interview in "Starlog" magazine in 1991, explaining his
reluctance to do sequels to most of his successful films from the '80s]
There's so little time to do all the things I want to do that I can't
see any reason to get bogged down in sequels.
Everything I have ever done in my life has always stayed. I've
just added to it . . . but I will not change. Because when you are
successful and you change, you are an idiot.
I know that if you leave dishes in the sink, they get sticky and hard to wash the next day.
I would rather be Governor of California than own Austria.
I love the Hong Kong style of action movies, but that only looks
good for small guys. The reason why the whole style was developed over
there was because those guys were very puny guys - they're not
powerful-looking guys, they're also not powerful guys. There's no
weightlifting champion coming out of Hong Kong - maybe in the bantam
division or the lightweight division or something like that, but
normally you don't have really strong men coming out of there . . . they
had to learn a technique that small people can do that are as effective
as the big guy's strength. So that's where the martial arts came from.
In the beginning I was selfish. It was all about, "How do I build
Arnold? How can I win the most Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympic contests?
How can I get into the movies and get into business?" I was thinking
about myself . . . As I've grown up, got older, maybe wiser, I think
your life is judged not by how much you have taken but by how much you
give back.
[during his campaign for California governor, about his history of
"misbehavior"] Where I did make mistakes, or maybe go overboard
sometimes . . . I regret that. This is a different Arnold.
[on his fight scenes with the female T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
(2003)] How many times do you get away with this - to take a woman,
grab her upside down and bury her face in a toilet bowl? The thing is
you can do it, because, in the end, I didn't do it to a woman - she's a
machine. We could get away with it without being crucified by who knows
what group.
[on his decision to run for governor of California] It was the
most difficult decision in my life - except the one in 1978 when I
decided to get a bikini wax.
[after being pelted with an egg at a political rally] This guy owes me bacon now . . . you can't have egg without bacon.
[responding to criticism during a televised debate] I just realized I have the perfect part for you in "Terminator 4."
[victory speech after having won election as Governor of
California] I will not fail, I will not disappoint you, I will not let
you down.
The worst I can be is the same as everybody else. I hate that.
There's a lot of people who want me to get out of acting and want
me to run for governor. I think it's mostly movie critics.
You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.
I took more abuse in Predator (1987) than I did in Conan the Barbarian
(1982). I fell down that waterfall [40 feet] and swam in this ice-cold
water for days and for weeks was covered in mud. It was freezing in the
Mexican jungle. They had these heat lamps on all the time, but they were
no good. If you stayed in front of the lamps, the mud dried. Then, you
had to take it off and put new mud on again. It was a no-win situation.
The location was tough. Never on flat ground. Always on a hill. We stood
all day long on a hill, one leg down, one leg up. It was terrible.
[referring to Democrats at a political rally in Ontario,
California, in 2004] If they don't have the guts to come up here in
front of you and say, "I don't want to represent you, I want to
represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers" . . .
if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men.
[at the 2004 Republican National Convention] Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called True Lies (1994). It's what the Democrats should have called their convention.
President [George Bush]
knows you can't reason with people that are blinded by hate. But let me
tell you something: Their hate is no match for our decency, their hate
is no match for the leadership and the resolve of George Bush.
[Talking about his Conan the Barbarian (1982) director]: John Milius used to call himself the dog trainer. Guess who were the dogs?
[From an interview about his reaction to reading the original The Terminator
(1984) screenplay] I have read a lot of action adventure scripts, and
this definitely was one of the best. I knew that I wanted to play the
part of the Terminator as soon as I started reading.
[About being taken seriously] I don't care. The important thing to
me is that I'm doing work that people enjoy out there, that the movie
makes good money, that the studio makes the money back, and that I'm
having a great time at what I'm doing. I don't even consider myself
serious. So how do I expect people to take me serious? I think this
whole Hollywood thing has to be taken much looser . . . it's just
entertainment.
"There were various stepping-stones in my career. One of them was Conan the Barbarian
(1982), because it was the first time I did a film with that kind of
budget and I had the title role. The next big stepping-stone was The Terminator
(1984). With "The Terminator", I think people became aware of the fact
that I didn't really have to take my shirt off or run around and expose
my muscles in order to sell tickets. After I did "The Terminator" and we
had seen it be more successful than the Conan films, people then sent
me a variety of different kinds of scripts - all in the action-adventure
genre, but they were not muscle movies or Viking movies or pirate
movies or anything like that.
[Talking about playing the Terminator] I had to act like a cyborg,
which meant I couldn't show any kind of human fear or reaction to the
fire, explosions, or gunfire that was going off around me. That can be
difficult when you're walking through a door with its frame on fire,
trying to reload a gun, and at the same time thinking in the back of
your mind that people have accidents doing these kinds of stunts and
that it might be my turn.
[About more sequels to The Terminator
(1984)] I don't necessarily want to leave the magic of the Terminator
movies behind, and who says we have to? According to what we know about
the future, there were hundreds of Terminators built. The story of the
Terminator could go on forever.
[From an interview expressing concern over making Conan the Destroyer (1984) less brutal than its predecessor, Conan the Barbarian (1982)] I think it's a mistake. I know Sylvester Stallone made an extra $20 million because he got a PG rating for Rocky III
(1982), but it's a matter of how much you want to stay within the
character's reality. Can you slaughter people and never see blood? Is it
possible? You must have battles. That's part of life, war, and the
world of Conan.
[Talking about director Richard Fleischer]
The first day Fleischer came to see me work out, he told me, "Arnold,
could you put on some more muscles?" I couldn't believe it! It turned
out that Fleischer thought [John Milius']
decision to keep Conan clothed throughout the first film was a mistake.
Fleischer believes that people want to see my body much more often than
they did the first time around, so they will. I spend most of my time
in Conan the Destroyer (1984) fighting off people while I'm dressed in a loincloth.
[About the dog accident while making Conan the Barbarian
(1982)] One of them hit me too soon. It caught me off guard and I went
right over the ledge. I fell ten feet and landed on my back. I was
covered with scratches and bruises. It was probably a pretty good
beginning for this movie, though. It set the tone for the whole time we
were there. This was going to be fun . . . but dangerous.
[Talking about director John Milius] "There never would have been a Conan movie without him.
[on Warren Beatty]
There are some people who are close to him that say he is just starving
for attention, and that's the way he gets attention. Other people said,
"Look, he's not working and he just feels like he should maybe get
involved in politics". Instead, I just think that maybe he is jealous
that I did jump in. I find it silly, because I respect his work.
Well, I think because a lot of people don't know why I'm a
Republican, I came first of all from a socialistic country which is
Austria and when I came over here in 1968 with the presidential
elections coming up in November, I came over in October, I heard a lot
of the press conferences from both of the candidates, [Hubert H. Humphrey] and [Richard Nixon],
and Humphrey was talking about more government is the solution,
protectionism, and everything he said about government involvement
sounded to me more like Austrian socialism. Then when I heard Nixon talk
about it, he said open up the borders, the consumers should be
represented there ultimately and strengthen the military and get the
government off our backs. I said to myself, "What is this guy's party
affiliation?" I didn't know anything at that point. So I asked my
friend, "What is Nixon?" He's a Republican. And I said, "I am a
Republican". That's how I became a Republican."
[on refusing to grant clemency to condemned killer Stanley Tookie Williams]
After studying the evidence, searching the history, listening to the
arguments and wrestling with the profound consequences, I could find no
justification for granting clemency. The facts do not justify
overturning the jury's verdict, or the decisions of the courts in this
case.
[After undergoing heart surgery in 1997] We made, actually,
history, because it was the first time ever that doctors could prove
that a lifelong Republican has a heart.
As a kid - as a kid I saw socialist - the socialist country that
Austria became after the Soviets left. Now don't misunderstand me: I
love Austria and I love the Austrian people. But I always knew that
America was the place for me. In school, when the teacher would talk
about America, I would daydream about coming here. I would daydream
about living here. I would sit there and watch for hours American
movies, transfixed by my heroes, like John Wayne. Everything about America seemed so big to me, so open, so possible.
I have no sexual standards in my head that say this is good or
this is bad. Homosexual - that only means to me that he enjoys sex with a
man and I enjoy sex with a woman. It's all legitimate to me.
I didn't think about money. I thought about the fame, about just
being the greatest. I was dreaming about being some dictator of a
country or some savior like Jesus.
I'm 6'2". I've heard rumors that I'm really much shorter in real life
- like 5'6" or something like that - which is ridiculous. I can assure
California will not wait for our federal government to take strong
action on global warming. We won't wait for the federal government. We
will move forward because we know it's the right thing to do. We will
lead on this issue and we will get other western states involved. I
think there's not great leadership from the federal government when it
comes to protecting the environment.
Money doesn't make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.
[in a 1987 interview] I have to give the audiences what they enjoy
seeing while I try to bring in a little something new, with different
movies, different time periods and all those things. But what's
important is to entertain the people -- everything else means nothing.
[on his late friend and role model, body builder Reg Park]: Reg
was a dear friend, an extraordinary mentor and a personal hero. Other
than my parents, there may be no single person who had more to do with
me becoming the person I am today than Reg. He was like a second father
to me. It was Reg who impressed upon me how hard I would have to work if
I wanted to achieve my dreams. I'll always remember him making me do
calf-raises with 1,000 pounds at 5 o'clock in the morning.
[on Terminator Salvation
(2009)] I think it's cool to continue on with the franchise, in case I
want to jump over again and get into the acting after I'm through here
(as Governor of California).
There are such high standards and now there are always new standards being set for action. You see that with Iron Man (2008) and with The Dark Knight (2008) and that other film this summer, um, Wanted
(2008). That was an excellent movie! There was this train coming down
from a bridge, falling, and they're fighting inside the train car.
Jesus, that is unbelievable that you can do that. To have the
imagination to write it and the talent to shoot it and make it real on
the screen. It's a whole new dimension.
With Batman and Terminator, those big movies, there's a certain
expectation and if you don't live up to it, if the movie is not a 10,
then the business will be soft. If Terminator Salvation (2009) is pushing it forward, it will be breaking records all the time. If director McG
has the T4 and the kind of shots that has the audience thinking, 'Now
how did he do that?' -- then it is 'Terminator' and you can blow
everyone away and every record at the box office.
[on Terminator Salvation (2009)] I hope they do well, and I hope it is a huge hit. I do hope it creates a spectacle on the screen. That is what James Cameron created.
[on watching Will Ferrell movies] In those you howl for two hours and you feel like you get a six-pack of ab muscles from all the laughs!
[on Terminator Salvation
(2009)] I wasn't sure who the Terminator was. I don't know if there is
one or if he's the star or the hero. These are the things that determine
the success and how strong the movie will be.
I know California is supposed to be a place where dreams come
true, but my life has gone way beyond the dream. My dream was to come to
America, become the greatest bodybuilder of all time and do what Reg Park
had done by going into Hercules movies. And if that worked out, I was
going to build a gym business and then live happily ever after. Then all
of a sudden I shot right by my dream. I stopped doing the strong man
stuff, did the Terminator movies and became the highest-paid actor in
Hollywood. I got $30 million for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), you know.
[on the death of Michael Jackson]
Michael was a pop phenomenon who never stopped pushing the envelope of
creativity. Though there were serious questions about his personal life,
Michael was undoubtedly a great entertainer and his popularity spanned
generations and the globe.
[on the death of Patrick Swayze] Patrick Swayze
was a talented and passionate artist who struck a memorable chord with
audiences throughout the world. He played a wide range of characters
both on stage and in movies and his celebrated performances made the
hard work of acting look effortless - which I know from experience is
not easy. As a fan and as an actor, I admired Patrick and I know that he
will be dearly missed. On behalf of all Californians, Maria and I send
our deepest condolences to Patrick's family, friends and fans.
I am here to spend. I love to spend Hollywood's money! (June 1993).
[on Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables
(2010)] It is a great inspiration for people to see someone at his age
still at the top of his game -- acting, writing, directing, doing his
own stunts and fight scenes -- I mean, what an amazing talent. And for
him to still be so athletic and be able to rip off his shirt and have a
six-pack is just unbelievable.
[on the death of Tony Curtis] Tony Curtis
was a Hollywood icon, a great performer and artist and devoted family
man. I saw his extraordinary talent and ability to inspire generations
of Americans firsthand on the set of Christmas in Connecticut (1992)' and will always remember our times together.
[on a return to movies when his term as Governor of California
ends] I have no idea. So it depends if someone comes with a great script
or a great idea...you know, would I still have the patience to sit on
the set and to do a movie for three months or six months? All of those
things, I don't know, but I did have a meeting with James Cameron, we talked about some very important things.
The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.
(On the power of visualizing your goals) When I was very young, I
visualized myself being and having what it was that I wanted. The mind
is really so incredible. Before I won my first Mr. Universe, I walked
around the tournament like I owned it. The title was already mine. I had
won it so many times in my mind that there was no doubt I would win it.
Then, when I moved on to the movies, the same thing. I visualized
myself being a successful actor and earning big money. I could feel and
taste success. I just knew it would happen.
[on the passing of Elaine Kaufman] Elaine was an early supporter
of my acting career and would often call to let me know when an
influential writer or producer came in so I could stop and schmooze.
[on Terminator Salvation (2009)] The last one was awful. It tried hard, not that they didn't try, the acting and everything - it missed the boat.
[on visiting Venice, California] This place is insane. You never
have to smoke a joint. You just go on a bicycle ride in the morning,
inhale, and you live off everyone else.
[on Predator 2 (1990)] A predator in a city is a bad idea.
[on his career as a bodybuilder] I had a very clear vision of
where I wanted to go. You realize you have to pay no attention to the
naysayers. When you learn those lessons in sports, you can apply those
lessons for the rest of your life.
[on his Governor's salary] I didn't take a penny of my salary
during my terms. After all, it was petty cash compared to what you make
in the movies.
You can't have a life full of successes. In bodybuilding, I tried
bench-pressing 500lb many times and failed. That's how you get there.
You have to be daring.
They're writing right now Terminator: Genesis
(2015). There have been some writers on it for the last year-and-a-half
and they could not pull it off. We have told them over and over that
they are going in the wrong direction, now they've finally got rid of
those writers and they've got new really quality writers. Now they're
going in the right direction. I think this year the script will be
finished and we will be able to go into pre-production.
[on the death of his mentor Joe Weider]
He advised me on my training, on my business ventures, and once,
bizarrely, claimed I was a German Shakespearean actor to get me my first
acting role in --Hercules in New York (1969) even though I barely spoke English. He was there for me constantly throughout my life, and I will miss him dearly.
[his father] A lot of sons would have been crippled by his
demands, but instead the discipline rubbed off on me. I turned it into
drive.
To this day, I'm more comfortable when there's someone to schmooze with until I fall asleep.
When you grow up in a harsh environment, you never forget how to
withstand physical punishment, even long after the hard times end.
If you wanted a girl, you had to make an effort to have a conversation, not just drool like a horny dog.
I associate glasses with intellectuals.
I came to America, won Mr Universe, and now I'm in the movies.
Most bodybuilders don't have very interesting insights or routines.
In America, unlike Europe, there weren't a million obstacles to starting a business.
After coming to California, I posed in the heights above Malibu.
Bodybuilders like this spot because the ridges in the distance seem
little and your muscles look bigger than the mountains.
The applause of a crowd made me stronger.
If you get muscles, you can go to the beach and pick up girls.
Americans love foreign names.
I wanted to be rich very quickly.
Monstrous, futuristic, what I envisioned America as all about.
Something that seems impossible at the start can be achieved.
[on sweat] It's a great way to lose body fat.
Nights without sleep don't mean you can't perform at a high level
the next day and days without food don't mean you'll starve.
I aimed to be a leader someday.
If you let ego show through, you're put in your place.
[on journalists] They see everything from the outside.
Staying on top of the hill is harder than climbing it.
Its great to have someone to go home to.
When you have a relationship in a foreign language, you have to be extra careful not to miscommunicate.
I couldn't believe how difficult learning a new language could be. Pronunciations were especially dangerous.
[Mr Universe, Mr World and Mr Olympia] Winning all three would be
like unifying the heavyweight title in boxing: it would make me the
undisputed world champion. Mr World was by far the biggest bodybuilding
event I'd ever seen.
In bodybuilding I was king of the mountain, but in everyday LA I
was just another immigrant struggling to learn English and make a life. I
was glad to be away living my own life.
I always saw myself as a citizen of the world.
The more popular bodybuilding grew in prisons, the more guys would get the message to behave.
Winning narrowly didn't make me feel good; I wanted my dominance to be clear.
[after his father had a stroke] It was painful and upsetting to
see a man who had been so smart and so strong lose his coordination and
his ability to think. He died not long after.
[his nephew Patrick] He became my pride and joy.
Real estate was the place to invest. The math of real estate really spoke to me.
I like to always wander in like a puppy.
Bodybuilders look in the mirror as they train. You need to be your own trainer.
If millions of people came to see my movies someday, it was important that they know where the muscles came from.
I wanted to promote bodybuilding, both so that more people would
take part and to benefit my career. If I wanted to promote bodybuilding
to a new audience, I'd have to find my own way.
[on bodybuilding] It needed fresh blood.
I find joy in the gym because every rep and every set gets me one step closer to my goal.
I liked getting swept up into a cloud of celebs.
[on Jack Nicholson, 'Warren Beatty', and Roman Polanski] They all had such enormous passion for their profession.
Having women in the gym made us train harder.
I had no idea that reading from a script means you're supposed to act out the role.
[personal motto] Presentation, presentation, presentation.
When somebody sets the bar so low, you can't go wrong.
[endorsing bodybuilding publicly] It was a boost for bodybuilding
in America; suddenly the sport had a face and a personality.
In an entertainment interview, you could just make up stuff!
In bodybuilding, you try to suppress emotions and march forwards with determination; in acting its the opposite.
To live your life as an actor, you can't be afraid of someone stirring up your emotions.
Europe was always far less puritanical than the United States.
Sometimes its hard to explain to your toddler what you do at the office.
I've been retired from bodybuilding since 1980 but I'll always stay involved.
[during his open-heart surgery] Maria (Shriver) put a brave face on a scary situation.
I get goosebumps when Nelson Mandela talks about inclusion, tolerance and forgiveness.
[on Maria Shriver]
If I hadn't been her style and she hadn't been mine, we never would
have ended up together. Maria meshed with everything that I was, what I
stood for, and what I was doing. I got addicted to her. Maria was such a
forceful personality that she would just run over guys. She wanted to
be unique and different.
I was a self-made man.
In politics, when disputes arise and camps form, you have to grasp what's happening and move very quickly.
I could go on for hours about what draws me to Maria (Shriver) but still never fully explain the magic.
Love stories are built around people's idiosyncrasies.
[on Conan the Barbarian] There was no stunt double because it
would have been difficult to find someone with a body like mine.
Dino (De Laurentiis) had a reputation for getting things done. He
was very powerful in that way, and people in Hollywood knew it and
didn't mess with him.
[on Conan the Barbarian] I'd never done a love scene on camera and found it really strange.
My character and his stolen Harley were a perfect combo of cyborg and machine in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Our first major decision as a couple (he and Maria Shriver) was to find a house and call it our place.
When people come to me with a movie concept or a script, I always
ask "What is the poster? What is the image? What are we trying to sell
here?"
Danny DeVito is a master of comedy, loves stogies, and cooks pasta on the set-no wonder he made such a great twin.
Ivan Reitman took a chance on me as a comic hero.
Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and I had great fun opening Planet Hollywood restaurants around the world.
Total anonymity is almost impossible in Hollywood.
The outside world looked at our relationship (he and Maria
Shriver) in a simple-minded way, as a juicy success story. According to
this way of thinking, Maria becomes part of my trophy collection.
[on Maria Shriver] She brought a great foundation of knowledge and was a great partner to work with because we both grew.
When you start out, its all about one to one contact.
I'd always advanced by starting with a clear vision and working as hard as possible to achieve it.
For Maria (Shriver) to go out and be in front of the camera was a real declaration of independence.
[on Maria Shriver] She was the ideal woman for me.
Writing something is different from saying it.
I was Conan, and millions of dollars were being spent to make me shine. For the first time, I felt like the star.
[on Oprah Winfrey] She was talented and aggressive, and you could tell she believed in herself.
An aspect of being a Kennedy cousin (Maria Shriver) was that you
were never completely free. Since there were so many cousins, the number
of command performances were high.
Every one of the killings in Conan (the Barbarian) was well shot and extraordinary.
[on Conan the Barbarian] A Star Wars set on Earth.
(John) Milius always pushed the envelope. Conan (the Barbarian)
has stunts that have since been outlawed from movies. The bloodshed in
Conan seems tame by today's standards. At the time, the film introduced a
whole new dimension of violence on screen. Actors had five quarts of
blood strapped to their chests, the same amount in the human body.
Whenever it was spilled, Milius shot it against a light background to
get the full carnage.
I was really annoyed by the way that powerful studio executives kowtowed to the members of the ratings board.
I saw myself as a businessman first.
[on Ronald Reagan] He was wonderful at painting ideas in ways that everyone could understand.
My definition of living is to have excitement always; that's the difference between living and existing.
If you want to fight prejudice you have to have tolerance centers everywhere.
I was amazed to see how negative most of the people in Hollywood
remained toward Reagan during his presidency. He represented the values
that had brought me to America. The US was the greatest country with the
best opportunities and now that it was my home, I wanted to keep it
that way and make it even better. After the turmoil and gloom of the
1970s, Americans voted for Reagan because he reminded them of their
strength.
[the outrageous and conservative sides to his personality] I wanted to feel comfortable in both worlds.
There has to be investment in the public good.
I'd have made more money if Jimmy Carter still occupied the White House.
You do a movie or a book, you promote the hell out of it, you
travel the world as if its your marketplace, and in the meantime, you
work out and take care of business and explore even more.
When I learned about The Terminator, I loved the idea that he was a machine that never had to sleep.
For me, the question was always how to fit in all the stuff I want
to do. I seldom saw my life as hectic, the thought rarely crossed my
mind.
I'm not a religious person.
I never like to cut things from my life; I only add.
I'd felt like an American from the time I was 10 years old.
[his first thought when he met James Cameron] A skinny, intense guy.
I never went to a competition to compete; I went to win.
I wasn't sure I was free from prejudice; I'd made prejudiced comments.
When you promote a movie, you want to win over everybody. If you
give political speeches, you are bound to turn off somebody.
I considered the US my permanent home.
I kept quiet about politics whenever I visited Austria. I never
wanted to be perceived as some wise guy coming back and telling people
what to do.
I always believed in shooting for the top, and to become an American is like becoming a member of the winning team.
[his first thought about The Terminator] Strange name.
Poses are the snapshots, and the routine is the movie.
Bodybuilding is a lot like politics; you go from town to town, hoping word will spread.
[on bodybuilding competitions] You can't just pose on stage like a
robot and then walk off; people will never get to know your
personality.
At the top of the ladder, there was always room for one more. The
more people who stay on the bottom, the more crowded it becomes.
If I can see it and believe it, then I can achieve it.
[on James Cameron] He seemed more real than the people I met from Hollywood.
[on The Terminator] No thinking, no blinking, no thought, just action.
[on restaurants] In Hollywood, the actor never pays.
Once I've locked in on a vision for myself, I always resist changing the plan.
I'm a big believer in hard work, grinding it out, and not stopping until it's done.
[on James Cameron] The women he married, although a long list, were women you didn't want to mess with.
I never left the house without $1000 in cash and a no-limit credit card.
The conventional wisdom in Hollywood is that playing a villain is career suicide.
I think more like a businessman than like a typical actor.
Compared to Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer was a trip to Club Med.
[on James Cameron]
A control freak, he has eyes in the back of his head. He knows the name
of everyone on the set and no screwup gets past him; if you screw up
he'll make a scene publicly and embarrass you.
I always think the world of people who make a project their own and are on it 24 hours a day.
[the Golden Raspberry Awards] A kind of Oscar in reverse for bad movies.
You should marry when you're set financially and the toughest
struggles of your career are behind you. Most marriages break up over
financial issues.
I wasn't marrying her (Maria Shriver) because she came from wealth. What was Maria's was hers.
[Maria Shriver's portrait in his art collection] Among these beautiful images, Maria's was the gem.
[on Jacqueline Kennedy] She had an amazing ability to ask
questions that would make you wonder "how did she know that"? She always
made people feel welcome.
Gitte (Brigitte Nielsen) had a personality filled with laughter and fun mixed with a great hunger for attention.
When you make a movie, you can never really predict what will turn out to be the most repeated line.
[on The Terminator] The American public accepted me as both a hero and a villain.
In the mind of the public, the star is responsible for a movie's success.
[on marriage] Just let me stumble into it; I don't want to be forewarned.
You can over-think anything. There are always negatives. The more you know, the less you tend to do something.
[on marriage] I might not have done it if I'd known everything I'd have to go through.
I'm always comparing life to a climb, not just because there's a
struggle but also because I find at least as much joy in the climbing as
in reaching the top. I pictured marriage as a whole mountain range of
fantastic challenges.
[on Grace Jones] An interesting non-actor; talented and entertaining, she could not do anything low-key.
Have at least ten good laughs a day.
The makeup trailer is the place on the set where everyone talks.
If anybody's worried about anything, that's where you see it. It's the
mother of all beauty salons. The makeup trailer is all about a soothing
atmosphere, because you're getting ready for a scene.
Actresses have more problems than the average housewife.
[on his wedding day] I loved watching Maria (Shriver) coming up
the aisle. She looked so regal but at the same time, she radiated warmth
and happiness.
I was riding the great wave of action movies. They became as important to the 1980s as Westerns were in the 1950s.
Action movies are always more of an ordeal than a pleasure to make.
[on John McTiernan]
If a director of his caliber had done the sequel to Predator, the movie
could have become a major franchise on a par with The Terminator or Die
Hard.
It's always easy to be smart in hindsight.
Stallone and I were the leading forces in the genre. We created
work for up and coming action stars like Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van
Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Bruce Willis. Clint (Eastwood) began to show
more muscle as a result. The body was key. The era had arrived where
muscular men were viewed as attractive. Looking physically heroic had
become the aesthetic.
Early in my movie career, the hardest thing was giving up control.
In bodybuilding, everything had been up to me. In movies, you depend on
others right from the start.
[on the opening scene] You have one idea and then sit down and cook up the rest.
Whenever I finished filming a movie, my job was only half done.
Every film had to be nurtured in the marketplace. Some of the greatest
artists never sold much because they didn't know how. No matter what I
did in life, I was aware that you had to sell it.
Listening made me a more effective promoter. You have to cultivate
your audience and expand it with each new film. Nurturing a movie means
paying attention to the distributors. You do the things they feel are
important because they go all out in pushing the theatres.
When I had a good director, my movies went through the roof
because I was directed well. If I had a director who was confused with
no compelling vision for the movie, it would fizzle. I didn't make The
Terminator the success that it was; it was James Cameron's vision that made the movie great.
Everything in life has a funny side. I'd always been the perfect
target for jokes; there was so much material to work from.
Meeting comedians helped me to understand comedy. I really liked being around people who are funny.
[on Total Recall] Working with Sharon (Stone) will always be a
challenge. She was a sweetie off the set but needed tons of attention
on-set. There are just some actors who need more attention. People just
have their hang-ups and insecurities and acting definitely brings that
out.
In acting you take criticism so much more personally. You get upset, but every job has its downside.
[on 'Paul Verhoeven' and Total Recall] So many things he said were
brilliant. He had a masterful vision. He had enthusiasm, and did a
great job. I was proud my interest and passion helped to bring about the
movie. But the experience also proves how important marketing is - how
important it is to tell the people what this is about; really blow up
their skirt and make them say, "I have to go see this movie."
A Special Achievement Oscar is how the Motion Picture Academy honors an accomplishment for which there is no set category.
I grew up in a culture where you respect the elders.
When I see a great performer, I always start to dream. Maybe its
the Leo in me, the perpetual performer who always wants to be the center
of attention.
Starting with something disarming and funny is a good way to stand
out. You become more likable, and people receive your information much
better. Whenever I watched a comedy, I always thought "I could have done
that!" But if I was going to branch into comedies, I would need someone
to be my cheerleader.
[on Total Recall] For me, it connected with the sense I had sometimes that my life was too good to be true.
It wouldn't matter if you watched Total Recall 20 years from now,
you could still enjoy it. There's just something very appealing about
futuristic movies if they have great action and believable characters.
A change in studio management can sink a movie.
Once you pick a director, you have to have total faith in him and go with his judgment.
[on The Running Man] It was totally screwed up by hiring a first-time director and not giving him time to prepare.
[his first impression of 'Paul Verhoeven' on Total Recall] A skinny, intense-looking Dutch guy.
Every director wants to pee on the script and make his mark.
[on Danny DeVito] He's the opposite of a crazy Hollywood personality and the Milton Berle of comic acting.
Compared to an action hero, it was easier being a comic star.
[his singing ability] I'm no Frank Sinatra. The only time I sing in real life is at the end of a party when I want the guests to leave.
[on _George Bush (I)_ Sr] He had tremendous strength of character
and will. This was our next President, the real American hero. He had a
casual approach to campaigning; not everything had to be perfect.
I belonged to the NRA because I believed in the constitutional right to bear arms.
I am a patriotic American. I saw Ronald Reagan and George Bush
(Sr) take an economy that looked like Pee-wee Herman and make it look
like Superman.
Eisenhower and Kennedy championed fitness as a way for America to stand strong against the Soviets.
Fitness is important for all Americans, not just athletes. A lot
of schools have great athletic programs but not great fitness programs.
I'd never seen a director fine-tune a movie as methodically as Ivan Reitman.
I was on a crusade around the world to promote health and fitness to young people.
Governments don't want to be told they're doing something wrong.
I'd always felt we lacked real men in movies.
[when his first child was born] Fuck! This is my first baby. You
can be so overwhelmed by something that billions of people in history
have done. And from that moment on, your life as a couple has changed.
But as long as you love the baby, you'll figure it out, just like with
everything you love doing. Caring for babies is hardwired into the
brain.
I was addicted to public service.
Humour was what made me stand out from other action leads. It
opened up the (action) movie and made it appealing to more people.
[on The Terminator, Commando, Predator and Total Recall] They all focused on the universal theme of good vs evil.
If the press sees you coming out of the Oval Office with the President, you'll win respect.
Fitness is fun. I felt very strongly that I had to carry to all 50
states the message that fitness was a national priority.
I love being on the road and meeting people. That's what I do best.
The Great American Workout was from 7 to 9 o'clock in the morning.
When in Austria, I often put on traditional clothes and do as the Austrians do.
Hiking in the Alps I'd sometimes wear loud obnoxious Hawaiian
shorts just to get a rise out of the Lederhosen traditionalists.
[on James Cameron]
[He] is a big believer in surprising the audience. His knowledge of
science and the world of the future went way beyond the ordinary.
[on Terminator 2] It was typical (James) Cameron genius to have character development in a machine.
My friendship with the President (George Bush Sr) quickly became a
very big part of my life. It was warm from the time we first met during
the Reagan years.
[on the Gulfstream III jet] The perfect vehicle for visiting the States.
After being the fitness czar, running for Governor of California felt like deja vu.
My talent is fitness and this is something I can give back.
You can't have people just like your movie, you need them to be
passionate. Word of mouth is what makes movies big, because while you
can put in millions to promote the movie on the first weekend, you can't
afford to do that every week.
Its embarrassing to fail at the box office.
When you feel embarrassed, you assume the whole world is focused on your failure.
[on George Bush Sr] If you had talent and did him a favour or he
liked you, he would push you forward whether it made sense or not. He
was a different breed, a sweetheart of a guy. The fact he put such trust
in me had a powerful effect. I felt there would never, ever be a time,
no matter what happened, when I would violate that trust or let the man
down.
A person's muscles don't care where the resistance comes from.
America wouldn't be the land of the free if it wasn't the home of
the brave. When you see the work they do and the risks they take, you
realize what we owe our military.
1991 was golden for me.
[on Planet Hollywood] A glitzy new moneymaking machine. It was not just an event; it was the beginning of an empire.
I came to America because it's the greatest place in the world,
and I'm going to do everything I can to keep it the greatest place.
I've always felt appreciative of the armed forces because I've
benefited from the American dream, and their courage and determination
is what safeguards it.
[during Conan the Destroyer] I'm finally getting paid a million
dollars for a movie, but now (Sylvester) Stallone's making 3 million, I
feel like I'm standing still.
If I heard an idea or saw a script that was exceptionally good and triggered something in me, I wanted to make that movie.
I loved the idea of new challenges, along with new dangers of failure.
Clint (Eastwood) was one of the few Hollywood personalities who had his head screwed on straight.
(Richard) Nixon was very good at paying attention to you. We need more leaders like him.
Nobody in Hollywood wins all the time. At some point, you're bound to get a beating.
America can be powerful only if you have a strong military.
I figured that the idea of eventually ending up in politics was
not that far fetched when someone like (Richard) Nixon suggested it.
I love factories, and whenever I'm passionate about a product, I want to see it being made.
Cubans are geniuses. They have the best climate, they have the
best soil, and they have the tradition: generations of people who are
passionate about rolling cigars and who are always looking for ways to
make the cigars ever more perfect. When you look at a cigar and it has
those thick veins in it, it's either a cheaper cigar or someone wasn't
paying attention. As with everything, it's important to have a
great-looking label. Cuban cigars truly are as good as people say. You
can sniff out the fakes ones within seconds.
I always like to be called up for a speech without any prior notice.
No-one expects you to blow people up in a comedy.
When you feel good about someone and you know specifically why, it's not difficult at all to speak from the heart.
I'm like a little kid who loves to show off and share things that I have experienced.
I thought I was the poster boy for the American dream. I came to
the US virtually broke, worked hard, kept focused on my goal, and made
it. This really was the land of opportunity. If a kid like me could do
it, anybody could. I had a fire inside of me to succeed. Anything is
possible, but you have to do your end of the work. Making money was
never my only goal, but money opened the door to interesting
investments.
In the mid-1990s the Internet was just an odd new idea.
The most important thing was not how much you make, but how much
you invest, how much you keep. I never wanted to join the long list of
famous entertainers and athletes who wiped out financially. My goal was
to get rich and stay rich.
I never like business relationships that are purely work.
[his personal motto] Take one dollar and turn it into two.
I wanted big investments that were interesting, creative and
different. Conservative bets didn't interest me. I was proud to pay
taxes on the money I earned. I could tolerate big risks in exchange for
big returns, but I'm always open to new ideas.
Singapore Airlines had the best reputation in the airline business. The Boeing 747 was the ballsiest airliner.
Stan Winston's
special effects studio was torture; on The Terminator, it took 30
minutes for the cement to dry when designing the prosthetics to cover my
face. The first time I went through it I got very anxious and thought
of pleasant memories to endure it. My heart surgery reminded me of all
that.
The more you promote yourself as the ultimate action hero, the more people form a larger than life perception of you.
[after heart surgery] I felt as vigorous as Hercules.
Planet Hollywood opened in Moscow, Sydney, Helsinki, London, San
Antonio Texas (drawing 100,000 spectators) and Paris. Planet Hollywood
was like The Beatles.
Sometimes when you look at a deal, you see less danger and you're
too willing to take the plunge. The more risky things are, the more
upside there is.
I'd hear guys bragging about their new Gulfstream IV or IV-SP and
I'd get to say, "That's great guys. Let me talk about my 747..." It was a
great conversation stopper.
God is the one who made the science possible.
[on heart surgery] Big risk, big reward.
[on Maria Shriver]
She had a tendency to blow things up into high drama, even things that
weren't life and death, whereas I would play everything down. I'm a
person who does not like to talk about things over and over. I make
quick decisions, I don't ask opinions, and I don't think over the same
things. I want to move on. She's an outward processor, while I keep
things bottled up.
There's a moment going into surgery that I really hate. The moment
when the anesthesia takes hold, when you know you're going out, losing
consciousness and don't know if you'll ever wake up from it.
[after heart surgery] I got a second or third lease on life.
on [Planet Hollywood] I'd love to do it again, only to have it
managed better. Whoopi (Goldberg), Bruce (Willis), Sly (Stallone) and
all the other big-name participants would tell you that Planet Hollywood
was fun. With the huge parties, openings, premieres, we met people all
over the world and had the time of our lives.
She (Maria Shriver) is a very good writer, with an unbelievable vocabulary and grace with words.
Holidays become more meaningful when you have a family.
Talking to kids in your second language is never easy to do.
After I came to America, I learned to think a bit more about my
family rather than just myself. With my mother I built a good
relationship where she and I really communicated. I loved doing things
for my mother. She deserved to be treated like a queen. She was buried
next to my father because they were so connected.
You're just one person, and the country is much bigger, and it's what will live forever.
Big-time celebrities don't like flying commercial.
Promotion and merchandising were realms I truly understood.
[on California] America's golden state.
America is my true home.
I wasn't interested in symbols. I was interested in action.
Big cats have always fascinated me.
Independent producers are the saviours in Hollywood because they'll take risks that the big studios won't.
I love shooting at night because I have a lot of energy at night and I get lots of inspiration.
[on heart surgery] It gave me energy beyond belief. I feel like a
totally new person. And I no longer had to convince people that I still
had a pulse.
[on being governor] He can bring a vision to the state; you get
blamed for everything and you get credit for everything. It's high risk,
high reward. I felt tremendous loyalty and pride about California. I
wanted America to stay the bastion of free enterprise and protect it
from following Europe in the direction of bureaucracy and stagnation.
You make a big mistake to lock in programs that require you to keep
spending at boom-time levels.
The more I read up on California, the more it was like bad news
piled on top of bad news. We can't continue this way. We need change.
I was fiscally conservative, pro-business, against raising taxes,
pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-lesbian, pro-environment, pro-reasonable gun
control, pro-reasonable social safety net.
We needed to avoid trying to win over the press and instead play
to the people. I was all about leadership and major projects and reforms
that could attract massive public support.
I pride myself on being able to juggle many tasks. I got a college
education while bodybuilding, married Maria (Shriver) in the middle of
filming Predator, and made Kindergarten Cop and Terminator 2 while
launching Planet Hollywood.
Most juvenile crime is committed between 3 and 6 o'clock in the afternoon.
I would not go into a competition with a disadvantage.
If you don't get killed, you win.
I thought I would never die.
[winning the title of Mr Universe] It is my lifetime realized. I
am very happy to be Mr Universe. I say it again, it sounds so good. I am
very happy to be Mr Universe. My thanks to everyone in England who have
helped me. They have been very kind to me. Thank you all.
Los Angeles stood out because it was the only big city that had
after-school programs in every one of its 90 elementary schools. State
officials and lawmakers just didn't see after-school programs as
important. After-school programs not only help the kids but also reduce
the strain on the teachers. Young kids relate better to young people,
especially after a whole day of teachers and school. They want
counsellors in jeans and with spiky hair, who can serve as parent
figures but who don't look like them - not that many retired teachers
want to go back to work.
The reason I wanted to be healthy was that I never wanted to ask anyone for money. It was so against my grain.
Raising cash from the set of a movie was a huge advantage.
I had a track record of organizing summits across fifty states. I
loved seeing wounded veterans and entertaining them and thanking them
for their great work.
I'd assumed that a recall would be just like a normal election.
I never argued with people who underestimated me. If the accent
and the muscles and the movies made people think I was stupid, it worked
to my advantage.
Our elected leaders will either act decisively, or we will act in their place.
[governorship] I would give up my movie career for that.
Californians love their cars.
Spend no more than the state is taking in.
Its hard for any governor to make the changes that were needed. I
loved it when people say that something can't be done. That's when I
really get motivated; I like to prove them wrong. And I liked the idea
of working on something bigger than me.
[California] It is the place in the world where everyone wants to go. It was wrapped in problems, but it was also heaven.
There is a disconnect between the people of California and the
politicians of California. We the people are doing our job: work hard,
pay taxes, raise our families. The politicians are not doing their job.
They fiddle, they fumble, and they fail. These words resonated more
strongly than any movie script I'd read.
[Baghdad] The wild driving, the poverty, no money and a leadership vacuum - like California right now.
I was not the least bit intimidated by the thought of a campaign.
It was like every other major decision I'd faced. I thought about
winning. I knew it would happen. I was locked in automatic pilot.
As every spouse knows, you have to pick the right moment to bring up a loaded subject.
When I came here, California was a beacon.
[why he wanted to become governor of California] I'm tired of this acting stuff. I need a new challenge.
In politics everybody knows everything. You're totally exposed.
When I met Maria [Shriver], she was full of life, excitement, and
hunger for the world. She wanted to be a rebel, not have a job on
Capitol Hill.
Whatever she [Maria Shriver] wanted to do, I would help her get there.
One side of Maria [Shriver] was ballsy and brave and wanted to be a strong partner.
Making a career decision had always been an incredible high.
Making a career decision as a husband and a father was a whole different
deal.
Declaring a candidacy was so loaded.
California is more important than everyone's career.
Is firefighting a macho enough profession for an action hero? The
real life heroism at Ground Zero laid that question to rest.
Elected officials usually hate ballot initiatives because they reduce their power and make the state harder to govern.
Republicans and unions usually don't mix.
I wanted to know what it really took to run for office, given that I wasn't a typical candidate.
I remember marvelling at how ordinary citizens could limit the state's power.
I took pride in my financial independence.
Leave no stone unturned.
I always paid close attention to focus groups and surveys and in politics, opinion research plays an even bigger role.
[being governor of California] This was the best job I ever had.
There is no contradiction in being both a Republican and an environmentalist
For me, talking convincingly about the future was easy: all I had
to do was point to what we'd achieved since I came into office.
California politics was this big centrifuge that forced voters,
policies and parties away from the center. I challenged Californians to
stop yielding to the far left and the far right and return to the
center. Centrist does not mean weak, or watered down or warmed over. It
means well balanced and well grounded. The American people are
instinctively centrist. So should be our government. America's political
parties should return to the center, where the people are. The left and
the right don't have a monopoly on conscience.
We are not waiting for politics, for our problems to get worse, or
for the federal government. Because the future does not wait. Not only
can we lead California into the future, we can show the nation and the
world how to get there.
[politics] You get so immersed in the job there are side effects
on the people you love. Even if you succeed in protecting your wife and
kids from the public spotlight, they feel they're sharing and losing
you.
Trying to reform health care had almost destroyed Bill Clinton's
presidency. I'd always thought it was a disgrace that the greatest
country in the world didn't provide a health care system for all of its
people, as many European countries do. Our health care reform became
America's, and California led the way.
All the great ideas come from local governments.
I am of the Reagan view that we should not go off the cliff with flags flying.
The California Republican Party should be a right of center party that occupies the broad middle of California.
Even when acting in a movie, I would not shoot a stunt if I hadn't rehearsed it a minimum of ten times.
President Bush (Jr) was always available to talk. If I raised only one issue at a time, I would get a fair hearing.
If you need to do something that's not in the manual, throw the manual out.
Never bullshit.
The statistics in the wake of a disaster are always tragic.
When the federal government meddles in markets, the states pay the price.
When you're spending more money than you're taking in, you cut spending. Simple.
Ad-libbing can backfire when you're running for governor.
I'm not really the crying type.
It's painful to have just endorsed things that you now have no
money for. I felt like a schmuck backing out on commitments I wanted to
make but could no longer afford. The consequences of cuts are not just
dollars, but people. We're all getting screwed. I was forced to make
unpopular decisions that nobody, least of all me, was happy about.
[on his children] The drama of the presidential election interested them more than my job.
I believe in sprinting through to the finish line.
All great movements in history start out on a grassroots level,
not in places like Washington or Paris or Moscow or Beijing.
I'm proud to say I found a way to cram 36 hours of work into a single day.
Budget negotiations are no different than grueling five hour
weight lifting sessions in the gym. The joy of working out is that with
each painful rep you get a step closer to achieving your goal. I was
deeply frustrated with party leaders and the press for not making plain
the budget history.
When I stepped up to the podium, I was overwhelmed to realize I
was standing where John F Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev
had all addressed the UN before me.
Unlike regular politicians, I had nothing to lose.
Six years of ups and downs forged me as a governor. I had more
forward momentum than ever before. I felt more like a hungry eagle
rather than a lame duck.
The key to real permanent reform is being in sync with the hearts
and minds of the people. We had rattled so many cages on the left and
the right with our reforms.
Of all the things I've done with my life, nothing is seared in my
memory more than looking into the eyes of someone who has just lost
everything he loved in the world.
Being governor was more complex and challenging than I had
imagined. That's the problem of presenting yourself as the Governator.
You can do miracles but not the kind that require wearing a cape and
being able to fly. As governor, you're neither a solitary champion nor a
star. Compared to making a movie, when you accomplish something in
government, the satisfaction is so much larger and long lasting. In a
movie, you are entertaining people for a few hours in a dark theatre. In
government, you are affecting entire lives; generations even.
Change takes big balls.
I've always idolized (Mikhail) Gorbachev because of the courage it
took to dismantle the political system that he grew up under. For
Gorbachev to have the guts to embrace change rather than further oppress
his people or pick fights with the West has always amazed me.
Fitness promotes health and enhances the quality of life.
[lying to Maria Shriver about his infidelity] Instead of doing the
right thing, I'd just put the truth in a mental compartment and locked
it up where I didn't deal with it every day.
[on his illegitimate son] Politically, I didn't feel it was
anybody's business because I hadn't campaigned on family values. If I
was going to talk about bad behavior, I wanted to do it on my own
timetable.
Although Maria (Shriver) and I remain separated, I still try to
treat everyone as if we are together. Maria has a right to be bitterly
disappointed and never look at me the same way again.
What had made my career fun for more than 30 years was sharing it
with Maria (Shriver). We'd done everything together and now there was no
one to come home to.
A green global economy is desirable, necessary, and within reach.
You start reading scripts and visualizing the scene and how to
direct it, how to choreograph the stunt, and then you get into it and
then you look forward to doing it.
Normally an action star keeps to himself on the set.
There's a difference between being 35 and almost 65.
[University of Southern California] It prides itself on being
neither conservative nor liberal but open minded. It operates by
promoting discussion to draw the best ideas from the brightest minds
across the political spectrum.
The great leaders always talk about things that are much bigger
than themselves. They say working for a cause that will outlive us is
what brings meaning and joy. The more I'm able to accomplish in the
world, the more I agree.
I always wanted to be an inspiration for people, but I never set
out to be a role model in everything. It's never been my goal to set an
example in everything I do.
I don't believe that violence on-screen creates violence on the
street or in the home. Otherwise there would have been no murders before
movies were invented, and the Bible is full of them.
I prefer being way out there, shocking people. Rebelliousness is
part of what drove me from Austria. Being outrageous is a way to
succeed. No one could put me in a mold. Being different was right up my
alley.
Life is richer when we embrace the multitudes we all contain.
Impossible was a word I loved to ignore when I was governor. The
only way to make the possible possible is to try the impossible. If you
fail, so what? That's what everybody expects. But if you succeed, you
make the world a much better place.
Never follow the crowd. Go where it's empty. It's easier to stand out when you aim straight for the top.
No matter what you do in life, selling is part of it.
You can do the finest work and if people don't know, you have nothing! The most important thing is to make people aware.
[on Muhammad Ali]
I always admired him because he was a champion, had a great
personality, and he was generous and always thoughtful toward others. If
all athletes could be like him, the world would be better off.
Don't overthink. If you think all the time, the mind cannot relax.
Part of us needs to go through life instinctively. Turning off your
mind is an art. Knowledge is extremely important for making decisions.
The more knowledge you have, the more you're free to rely on your
instincts. The more you know, the more you hesitate. When you are not
confident of your decision-making process, it will slow you down.
Overthinking is why people can't sleep at night: it cripples you.
Many movie deals are made under pressure, and if you freeze, you lose.
To test yourself and grow, you have to operate without a safety
net. Forget Plan B. If there is no Plan B, then Plan A has to work.
You can use outrageous humour to settle a score.
What are the odds for an Austrian farm boy to come to America and
become the greatest bodybuilding champion of all time, to get in the
movie business, marry a Kennedy, and then get elected governor of the
biggest state in the United States?
If government is not taking in enough revenue because of an economic slowdown, then everyone should chip in and sacrifice.
Writing out my goals became second nature, and so did the
conviction that there are no shortcuts. It took hundreds and even
thousands of repetitions for me to learn to hit a great three-quarter
back pose, deliver a punchline, dance the tango in True Lies, paint a
beautiful birthday card, and say "I'll be back" just the right way.
I have come to feel great affection for the peoples of the world,
because they have always been so welcoming to me, whether as a
bodybuilder, a movie star, a private citizen, or as governor of the
great state of California.
Don't blame your parents. They've done their best for you, and if
they've left you with problems, those problems are now yours to solve. I
could channel my upbringing in a positive way rather than complain. I
could use it to have a vision, set goals, find joy. I don't have to lick
my wounds. Sometimes you have to appreciate the very people and
circumstances that traumatized you. Today I hail the strictness of my
upbringing, and the fact I didn't have anything I wanted in Austria,
because those were the very factors that made me hungry; it put fuel on
the fire in my belly. It drove and motivated me.
There are a thousand keys to success.
[on his infidelity] It was one of those stupid things that I
promised myself never to do. A lot of people, no matter how successful
or unsuccessful in life, make stupid choices involving sex.
Secrecy is just part of me. I keep things to myself no matter what. I'm not a person who was brought up to talk.
Bodybuilders who are blind to themselves or deaf to others usually fall behind.
[on Mr Universe] I wanted to win it so decisively that people would forget I'd ever lost.
Take care of your body and your mind. Focusing on the body was no
problem for me. I realized that the mind is a muscle and we should train
it too. If world leaders have time to work out, so do you.
[Gorbachev dismantling the USSR] I'm amazed by the courage it took
to not go for immediate gratification but to look for the best
direction for the country in the long run. To me Gorbachev is a hero, at
the same level as Nelson Mandela, who overcame the anger and despair of
27 years in prison. When given the power to shake the world, both of
them chose to build rather than destroy.
[on Pope John Paul II balancing his duties with an exercise
regime] If that guy can do it, I've got to get up even earlier!
Be hungry for success, hungry to make your mark, hungry to be seen
and to be heard and to have an effect. And as you move up and become
successful, make sure also to be hungry for helping others. Don't rest
on your laurels. Too many former athletes spend their lives talking
about how great they were 20 years ago. So many accomplished people just
coast. They wish they could still be somebody and not just talk about
the past. There is much more to life than being the greatest at one
thing. We learn so much when we're successful, so why not use what
you've learned, use your connections and do more with them? If you have a
talent or skill that makes you happy, use it to improve your
neighborhood. And if you feel a desire to do more, then go all out.
You'll have plenty of time to rest when you're in the grave. Live a
risky and spicy life and like Eleanor Roosevelt said, "every day do
something that scares you." We should all stay hungry!
Memoirs are about looking back, but I've lived my life by the
opposite principle. At home I have a hundred photo albums starting with
my childhood in Austria, and I never look at them. I'd rather do another
project or make another movie and learn from looking forward!
[on his autobiography, Total Recall] Digging up and piecing
together memories proved to be as difficult as I imagined, and yet what
made the work unexpectedly enjoyable was the help I got from others. I
found myself swapping stories with old friends from the worlds of
bodybuilding, business, sports, Hollywood and politics - a large cast of
characters. I'm grateful to all of them for helping me recreate the
past and for making it immediate and friendly. Finally, I thank my
family. They were generous in helping me make sure this memoir delivers
on its name. And thanks especially to Maria (Shriver), for her patience
with the project and for remaining as always the person I could go to
whenever I got stuck.
If I accomplished and solidified my position in the bodybuilding
world, from then on, I would be on a roll. Nobody would stop me.
There is no such thing as an Austrian Shakespearean actor. It doesn't exist.
You're not supposed to laugh on the (film) set.
When you're not on camera, stay in character, act your part,
giving it everything you have in order to draw the best out of the actor
who is being filmed.
It was very difficult for me in the beginning - I was told by
agents and casting people that my body was 'too weird', that I had a
funny accent, and that my name was too long. You name it, and they told
me I had to change it. Basically, everywhere I turned, I was told that I
had no chance.
A few months ago, I got rear-ended by this guy. He took off, and I
chased him. I will admit I drove at a slightly excessive speed. I cut
him off, and two guys jumped out of the car looking tough. But when they
saw me, they just said, 'Oh shit! The Terminator!' They were nice, and
gave me their information.
Salary (22)
| Hercules in New York (1969) | $12,000 |
| Conan the Barbarian (1982) | $250,000 |
| Conan the Destroyer (1984) | $1,000,000 |
| The Terminator (1984) | $750,000 |
| Commando (1985) | $1,500,000 |
| Predator (1987) | $3,000,000 |
| The Running Man (1987) | $5,000,000 |
| Red Heat (1988) | $8,000,000 |
| Total Recall (1990) | $10,000,000 |
| Kindergarten Cop (1990) | $12,000,000 |
| Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) | $14,000,000 |
| Last Action Hero (1993) | $15,000,000 |
| True Lies (1994) | $15,000,000 |
| Junior (1994) | $15,000,000 |
| Eraser (1996) | $20,000,000 |
| Jingle All the Way (1996) | $20,000,000 |
| Batman & Robin (1997) | $25,000,000 |
| End of Days (1999) | $22,000,000 |
| The 6th Day (2000) | $25,000,000 |
| Collateral Damage (2002) | $25,000,000 |
| Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) | $30,000,000 |
| The Last Stand (2013) | $5,000,000 |
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