Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on July 30th 1946 in Graz, Austria. He is an Austrian-American bodybuilder, actor and an American politician who is currently serving as the 38th governor of California. Schwarzenegger is known by many nicknames. "The Austrian Oak", from his days in bodybuilding. He got the nickname "Arnie" during his acting career and as a politician he is known by the nickname "The Governator".

Bodybuilding career

Schwarzenegger first gained fame as a bodybuilder. He won the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965 and that was the start of a long career in bodybuilding. Schwarzenegger's goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.

In 1970 he won his first Mr. Olympia title. He also won the contest the following years 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975. After the contest 1975 Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding. Schwarzenegger's achievements in bodybuilding are impressive. He won 5 Mr. Universe titles and 7 Mr. Olympia titles during his active career. From now on his aim was set at large Hollywood productions instead of promotion videos for muscle supplements.

Acting career

In 1970 Schwarzenegger had his first big role when he was chosen to play the role of Hercules in the movie Hercules in New York. Due to his thick accent the producers had his lines dubbed. He was credited under the name "Arnold Strong". In 1976 Schwarzenegger had a significant part in the movie Stay Hungry. Schwarzenegger was awarded a Golden Globe for Best New Male Star.

Schwarzenegger came to the attention of more people after the documentary Pumping Iron in 1977. Schwarzenegger purchased the rights to this film, its outtakes and associated still photography in 1991.

Arnold's breakthrough, as an actor, was Conan the Barbarian which was released in 1982. The movie was followed up by Conan the Destroyer in 1984. Arnold is best-known as the title character of James Cameron's movie The Terminator (1984). As a Hollywood superstar he has made a number of successful movies such as Commando,Raw Deal, Running Man, Red Heat, Predator, Total Recalland Kindergarten Cop.

In 1991 Terminator 2 was released. It was a huge success and probably marked the commercial top of his acting career. He followed up with more movies like Last Action Hero, True Lies, Junior, Eraser, End of Days and Terminator 3 to take some examples.

Political career

Schwarzenegger is a registered Republican and his first political appointment was to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993. He was dubbed "Conan the Republican" by George H. W. Bush.

In August 2003 Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for Governor of California at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was during this time that media gave him the nickname "Governator" (referring to The Terminator movies). On October 7th 2003 he was elected and on the 17th of November the same year he was sworn in to serve the remainder of Gray Davis' term.

November 7th 2006 Schwarzenegger was elected in California's 2006 gubernational election to serve a full term as governor after defeating Democrat Phil Angelides, the California State Treasurer. On January 5th 2007 Schwarzenegger was sworn in for a second term.