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Arnold Schwarzenegger

Austrian and American bodybuilder, actor and politician (born 1947)

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Arnold Schwarzenegger at the 10th Austrian World Summit at the Hofburg in Vienna ( Austria )
Bernhard Holub · CC BY-SA 4.0

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Schwarzenegger began lifting weights at the age of 15 and won the Mr. Universe bodybuilding championship at the age of 20. He won the Mr. Olympia title seven times, tying with Phil Heath for the second-highest number of wins. Nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, he is regarded as one of the greatest bodybuilders of all time. He has written books and articles about bodybuilding, including the autobiographical Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder (1977) and The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding (1998). The Arnold Sports Festival, the second-most prestigious bodybuilding event after the Mr. Olympia competition, is named after him. He appeared in the bodybuilding documentary Pumping Iron (1977), which set him on his way to a career in films.

After retiring from bodybuilding, Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame in the 1980s as a Hollywood action star. His breakthrough came with his starring role in Conan the Barbarian (1982), which was followed by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984). He subsequently starred as the Terminator in the science fiction film The Terminator (1984), and reprised the role in four sequels. Schwarzenegger's other appearances include the action films Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), Total Recall (1990), and True Lies (1994), and the comedies Twins (1988), Kindergarten Cop (1990) and Jingle All the Way (1996). At the height of his career, Schwarzenegger was known for his rivalry with Sylvester Stallone. Films in which he has appeared have grossed over $5.4 billion worldwide. He is the founder of the film production company Oak Productions.

As a registered member of the Republican Party, Schwarzenegger chaired the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports during most of the George H. W. Bush administration. In 2003, he was elected governor of California in a special recall election to replace Gray Davis. He received 48.6 percent of the vote, 17 points ahead of the runner-up, Cruz Bustamante of the Democratic Party. He was sworn in on November 17 to serve the remainder of Davis' term, and was reelected in the 2006 gubernatorial election with an increased vote share of 55.9 percent to serve a full term. In 2011, he reached his term limit as governor and returned to acting. As of 2026, Schwarzenegger and insurance commissioner Steve Poizner are the last Republicans to win or hold statewide office in California, having both won their respective elections in 2006, with Arnold Schwarzenegger being the last Republican to serve as Governor of California.

Early life and education

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, in Thal, Styria, the second son of Gustav Schwarzenegger and his wife, Aurelia (née Jadrny; 1922–1998). Gustav was the local chief of police and, after the Anschluss in 1938, joined the Nazi Party and in 1939 the Sturmabteilung (SA). During World War II, Gustav served as a military policeman in the invasions of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union, including the siege of Leningrad, rising to the rank of hauptfeldwebel. He was wounded in the summer of 1942 at Leningrad, later contracted malaria, and was discharged from the Heer in February 1944. He returned to service with the Ordnungspolizei as a Preisüberwachungsbeamter ("price control official") in Mürzzuschlag, Austria, and did not resume civilian law-enforcement duties until 1947.

According to Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, Gustav served "in theaters of the war where atrocities were committed. But there is no way to know from the documents whether he played a role." Gustav's background received wide press attention during the 2003 California gubernatorial recall election in which Schwarzenegger was elected.

Gustav married Aurelia on October 20, 1945; he was 38 and she was 23. According to Schwarzenegger, his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world ... if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared." He was raised in a Catholic household. Gustav favored his elder son, Meinhard, over Arnold. His favoritism was "strong and blatant", stemming from an unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his biological child. Schwarzenegger has said that his earliest childhood memory is climbing into his parents' bed during a thunderstorm and lying between them. He has also said that his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems". He maintained a close relationship with his mother and stayed in contact with her until her death.

In a 2004 interview with Fortune, Schwarzenegger said he suffered what "would now be called child abuse" at the hands of his father: "My hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door. It was just the way it was. Many of the children I've seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality. They didn't want to create an individual. It was all about conforming. I was one who did not conform, and whose will could not be broken. Therefore, I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone said, 'You can't do this,' I said, 'This is not going to be for much longer because I'm going to move out of here. I want to be rich. I want to be somebody.'"

At school, Schwarzenegger was reportedly academically average but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored, and exuberant" personality. He struggled with reading and was later diagnosed with dyslexia. Money was scarce in the household; Schwarzenegger recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a refrigerator. Gustav, an athlete, wanted his sons to become champions in Bavarian curling. Influenced by his father, Schwarzenegger played several sports as a boy.

Schwarzenegger began weight training in 1960 when his football coach took the team to a local gym. At age 14, he chose bodybuilding over football as a career. He later said, "I actually started weight training when I was 15, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." His official website biography, however, states that "at 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career." In a 2001 speech, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school."

Schwarzenegger began visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented local movie theaters to watch films featuring bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves, and Johnny Weissmuller. When Reeves died in 2000, Schwarzenegger remembered him fondly: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed me a sense of what was possible when others around me didn't always understand my dreams. Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a teenager that he broke into the local gym on weekends to train when it was closed. "It would make me sick to miss a workout ... I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it." When asked about his earliest cinema experience, he said: "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie." In Graz, he was mentored by Alfred Gerstl, who had Jewish ancestry and later became president of the Federal Council, and he befriended Gerstl's son Karl.

Schwarzenegger's brother, Meinhard, died in a car crash on May 20, 1971. He had been driving drunk and died instantly; Schwarzenegger did not attend the funeral. Meinhard was engaged to Erika Knapp, and they had a three-year-old son named Patrick. He paid for Patrick's education and helped him move to the U.S. His father, Gustav, died of a stroke on December 13, 1972. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the film's producer said the story had been taken from another bodybuilder to illustrate the extremes some athletes would go to for their sport and to create a colder, more controversial image for the film. However, Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, recalled that he told her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke about his brother. Over time, he has given at least three different explanations for why he did not attend his father's funeral.

Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965 to fulfill the one year of service required of all 18-year-old Austrian males at the time. During his service, he won the Junior Mr. Europe contest. He went AWOL during basic training to compete and spent a week in military prison: "Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn't carefully think through the consequences." He entered another bodybuilding contest in Graz, at the Steirerhof Hotel, where he placed second. He was voted "best-built man of Europe", which made him well known in bodybuilding circles. "The Mr. Universe title was my ticket to America—the land of opportunity, where I could become a star and get rich." Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966 to attend the NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London. He placed second, lacking the muscle definition of American winner Chester Yorton.

Following the competition, Northern Ireland judge Ivan Dunbar invited Schwarzenegger to take part in a bodybuilding event in Belfast after seeing him compete, later recalling that Schwarzenegger had "enthusiasm and talent". Schwarzenegger traveled for the show and stayed with Dunbar's family in Dundonald, County Down, before returning to London.

After returning to London, Charles "Wag" Bennett, one of the other judges at the 1966 competition, was impressed with Schwarzenegger and offered to coach him. As Schwarzenegger had little money, Bennett invited him to stay in his crowded family home above one of his two gyms in Forest Gate, London. Yorton's leg definition had been judged superior, and under a training program devised by Bennett, Schwarzenegger focused on improving his own. Living in the East End helped him improve his rudimentary English. Living with the Bennetts also changed him personally: "Being with them made me so much more sophisticated. When you're the age I was then, you're always looking for approval, for love, for attention and also for guidance. At the time, I wasn't really aware of that. But now, looking back, I see that the Bennett family fulfilled all those needs. Especially my need to be the best in the world. To be recognized and to feel unique and special. They saw that I needed that care and attention and love."

Also in 1966, at Bennett's home, Schwarzenegger met his childhood idol Reg Park, who became his friend and mentor. The training paid off, and in 1967 he won the Mr. Universe title for the first time, becoming the youngest winner at age 20. He would go on to win the title three more times. He then returned to Munich, where he attended business school and worked at Rolf Putziger's gym from 1966 to 1968, before returning to London in 1968 to win his next Mr. Universe title. He frequently told Roger C. Field, his English coach and friend in Munich, "I'm going to become the greatest actor!"

Schwarzenegger, who had dreamed of moving to the U.S. since age 10 and saw bodybuilding as his avenue of opportunity, realized that dream by moving to the U.S. in October 1968 at age 21, speaking little English. He trained at Gold's Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, under Joe Weider's supervision. From 1970 to 1974, one of his training partners was Ric Drasin, a professional wrestler who designed the original Gold's Gym logo in 1973. Schwarzenegger also became close friends with professional wrestler Superstar Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, Schwarzenegger won his first Mr. Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title seven times.

The immigration law firm Siskind & Susser has stated that Schwarzenegger may have been an illegal immigrant at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s because he may have violated the terms of his visa. LA Weekly wrote in 2002 that Schwarzenegger was "the most famous US immigrant", who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s".

In 1977, Schwarzenegger's autobiography and weight-training guide, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a major success. That same year, he posed for the gay magazine After Dark. After taking a range of courses at Santa Monica College (including English classes), as well as upper-division courses at the University of California, Los Angeles through UCLA's extension program, he accumulated enough credits to be "within striking distance" of graduation. In 1979, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Superior as a distance-education student, completing most of his coursework by correspondence and flying to Superior to meet professors and take final exams. In May 1980, he formally graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and marketing in a ceremony at Wessman arena. He became a United States citizen in 1983.

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