Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger
( , ; born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, businessman, and politician, currently serving
as the 38th Governor of the state of California
.
Schwarzenegger began weight-training at fifteen. He was awarded the
title of
Mr. Universe at age 22 and
went on to win the
Mr. Olympia contest a
total of seven times. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face
in the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, and has
written several books and numerous articles on the sport.
Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a
Hollywood
action film icon, noted for his lead role in such
films as Conan the
Barbarian and The
Terminator. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the
"Styrian
Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnold Strong" and
"Arnie" during his acting career, and more recently the
"Governator" (a portmanteau of
Governor and the Terminator,
one of his film roles).
As a
Republican, he
was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special
recall election to replace
then-Governor
Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger
was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of
Davis's term. Schwarzenegger was then re-elected on November 7,
2006, in
California's 2006
gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor,
defeating
Democrat
Phil Angelides, who was
California State Treasurer at the
time. Schwarzenegger was sworn in for a second term on January 5,
2007. In May 2004 and 2007, he was named as one of the
Time 100 people who help shape the world.
Schwarzenegger is married to
Maria
Shriver and has four children.
Early life
Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria
, a small village bordering the Styrian
capital
Graz
, and was christened
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local
police chief Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907 – 1972),
and his wife, Aurelia Jadrny (1922 – 1998). They were married on
October 20, 1945 Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow
with a son named Meinhard. According to Schwarzenegger, both of 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 grew up in a
Roman Catholic family who attended church
service every Sunday.
Gustav had a preference for Meinhard, the elder of the two sons.
His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from
unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child. Schwarzenegger
has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding
your problems… there was a wall; a real wall." Schwarzenegger had a
good relationship with his mother, and kept in touch with her until
her death.
In later life, Schwarzenegger commissioned
the Simon Wiesenthal
Center
to research his father's wartime record, which came
up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in
the Nazi Party and SA
. At
school, Schwarzenegger was apparently in the middle, but stood out
for his "cheerful, good-humored and exuberant" character. Money was
a problem in the household; Schwarzenegger has recalled that one of
the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a
refrigerator.
As a boy, Schwarzenegger played many sports—heavily influenced by
his father. He picked up his first
barbell
in 1960, when his
football
coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of fourteen,
Schwarzenegger chose
bodybuilding over
football (soccer) as a career. Schwarzenegger has responded to a
question asking if he was age thirteen when he started
weightlifting: "I actually started weight training when I was
fifteen, 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." However, his official website biography claims:
"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."
During a speech in 2001, he said,
"My own plan formed when I
was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police
officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade
school." Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where
he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding
idols such as
Reg Park,
Steve Reeves and
Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen.
"I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." When Reeves died in 2000,
Schwarzenegger fondly remembered him:
"As a teenager, I grew up
with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed
me a sense of what was possible, when others around me didn't
always understand my dreams ... Steve Reeves has been part
of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In
1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who
invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a
youngster that he was known to break into the local gym on
weekends, when it was usually closed, so that he could train.
"It would make me sick to miss a workout … I knew I couldn't
look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do
it." When Schwarzenegger was asked about his first movie
experience as a boy, he replied,
"I was very young, but I
remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing
some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I
distinctly remember, was a John Wayne
movie."
In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Meinhard had
been drinking and was killed instantly, and Schwarzenegger did not
attend his funeral. Meinhard was due to marry Erika Knapp, and the
couple shared a three-year-old son Patrick. Schwarzenegger would
pay for Patrick's education and help him to immigrate to the United
States. Gustav died the following year from a
stroke. In
Pumping
Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his
father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding
contest. Later, he and the film's producer both said this story was
taken from another bodybuilder for the purpose of showing the
extremes that some would go to for their sport, and to make
Schwarzenegger's image more cold and machine-like in order to fan
controversy for the film. Barbara Baker, his first serious
girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without
emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has
given at least three versions of why he did not attend his father's
funeral.
In an interview with
Fortune magazine in 2004,
Schwarzenegger told how he suffered what "would now be called child
abuse" at the hands of his father:
Early adulthood
Schwarzenegger served in the
Austrian army in 1965 to fulfill the one
year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian
males. He won the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. Schwarzenegger
went
AWOL during basic training so he could
take part in the competition and spent a week in an army jail:
"Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn't
carefully think through the consequences." He won another
bodybuilding contest in Graz, at Steirer Hof Hotel (where he had
placed second). He was voted best built man of Europe, which made
him famous.
"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, attending the
NABBA Mr.
Universe competition in London. He would come in second in the
Mr. Universe competition, not having the muscle definition of
American winner
Chester Yorton.
Charles "Wag" Bennett, one of the 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, England. Yorton's leg definition
had been judged superior, and Schwarzenegger, under a training
program devised by Bennett, concentrated on improving the muscle
definition and power in his legs.
Staying in the East End of
London
helped Schwarzenegger improve his rudimentary grasp
of the English language. The training paid off and, in 1967,
Schwarzenegger won the title for the first time, becoming the
youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20. He would go on to win
the title a further three times.
Schwarzenegger then flew back to Munich
, training
for four to six hours daily, attending business school and working
in a health club (Rolf Putzinger's gym where he worked and trained
from 1966-1968), returning in 1968 to London to win his next Mr.
Universe title. He frequently told
Roger C. Field,
a friend in Munich at that time, "I'm going to become the greatest
actor!"
Move to the U.S.
Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in September 1968 at the
age of 21, speaking little English. "Naturally, when I came to this
country, my accent was very bad, and my accent was also very
strong, which was an obstacle as I began to pursue acting."
There he
trained at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica
, California
, under Joe Weider.
From 1970 to 1974, one of Schwarzenegger's weight training partners
was
Ric Drasin, a
professional wrestler who designed the
original Gold's Gym logo in 1973. Schwarzenegger also became good
friends with professional wrestler
"Superstar" Billy Graham. In 1970,
at age 23, he captured his first
Mr.
Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title a
total of seven times.
Schwarzenegger may have been an
illegal immigrant at some point in the
late 1960s or early 1970s because of violations in the terms of his
visa.
In 1969, Schwarzenegger met Barbara Outland Baker, an English
teacher he lived with until 1974. Schwarzenegger talked about
Barbara in his
memoir in 1977: "Basically it
came down to this: she was a well-balanced woman who wanted an
ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man, and hated
the very idea of ordinary life." Baker has described Schwarzenegger
as "[a] joyful personality, totally charismatic, adventurous, and
athletic" but claims towards the end of the relationship he became
"insufferable classically conceited the world revolved around him".
Baker published her memoir in 2006, entitled
Arnold and Me: In
the Shadow of the Austrian Oak. Although Baker, at times,
painted an unflattering portrait of her former lover,
Schwarzenegger actually contributed to the tell-all book with a
foreword, and also met with Baker for three hours. Baker claims,
for example, that she only learned of his being unfaithful after
they split, and talks of a turbulent and passionate love life.
Schwarzenegger has made it clear that their respective recollection
of events can differ. The couple first met six to eight months
after his arrival in the U.S. their first date was watching the
first
Apollo Moon landing on
television.
They shared an apartment in Santa Monica
for three and a half years, and having little
money, would visit the beach all day, or have barbecues in the back
yard. Although Baker claims that when she first met him, he
had "little understanding of polite society" and she found him a
turn-off, she says, "He's as much a self-made man as it's possible
to be he never got encouragement from his parents, his family, his
brother. He just had this huge determination to prove himself, and
that was very attractive ... I'll go to my grave knowing Arnold
loved me."
Schwarzenegger met his next love, Sue Moray,
a Beverly
Hills
hairdresser's assistant, on Venice Beach
in July 1977. According to Moray,
the couple led an open relationship: "We were faithful when we were
both in LA
... but when
he was out of town, we were free to do whatever we wanted."
Schwarzenegger met
Maria Shriver at
the
Robert F. Kennedy Tennis
Tournament in August 1977, and went on to have a
relationship with both women until August 1978, when Moray (who
knew of his relationship with Shriver) issued an ultimatum.
Schwarzenegger has said his big dream from the age of 10 was to
move to the U.S. He questioned what he was doing "on the farm" in
Austria, and believed bodybuilding was his "ticket to America":
"I’m sure I can go to America if I win Mr. Universe."
LA Weekly said in 2002 that Schwarzenegger is
the most famous
immigrant in America, who
"overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely
background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the
world in the 1990s".
Bodybuilding career
Schwarzenegger is considered among the most important figures in
the history of bodybuilding, and his legacy is commemorated in the
Arnold Classic annual bodybuilding
competition. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in the
bodybuilding sport long after his retirement, in part because of
his ownership of gyms and fitness magazines. He has presided over
numerous contests and awards shows.
For many years, he wrote a monthly column for the bodybuilding
magazines
Muscle &
Fitness and
Flex.
Shortly after being elected Governor, he was appointed
executive editor of both magazines, in a
largely symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate $250,000
a year to the Governor's various physical fitness initiatives. The
magazine
MuscleMag International has a monthly two-page
article on him, and refers to him as "The King".
One of the first competitions he won was the Junior Mr. Europe
contest in 1965. He won Mr. Europe the following year, at age 19.
He would go on to compete in and win many bodybuilding contests, as
well as some
powerlifting contests,
including five Mr. Universe (4
NABBA
[England], 1
IFBB [USA]) wins,
and seven
Mr. Olympia wins, a record
which would stand until
Lee Haney won his
eighth consecutive Mr. Olympia title in 1991.
Competition Weight: 240 lbs (top 250 lbs)
Off Season Weight: 260 lbs
Strongman
In 1967, Schwarzenegger competed in and won the Munich
stone-lifting contest, in which a stone weighing 508
German pounds (254 kg/560 lbs.) is lifted
between the legs while standing on two foot rests. Schwarzenegger
has said the following on his size: "During the peak of my career,
my calves were 20 inches, thighs 28.5 inches, waist 34 inches,
chest 57 inches, and 22-inch arms."
In a full squat (buttocks close to ground) Schwarzenegger had a
personal record of 181 kg/400lbs, for twelve
repetitions.
Mr. Olympia
Schwarzenegger's goal was to become the greatest bodybuilder in the
world, which meant becoming
Mr. Olympia.
His first attempt was in 1969, when he lost to three-time champion
Sergio Oliva. However, Schwarzenegger
came back in 1970 and won the competition, making him the youngest
ever Mr. Olympia at the age of 23, a record he holds to this
day.
He continued his winning streak in the 1971 – 1974 competitions. In
1975, Schwarzenegger was once again in top form, and won the title
for the sixth consecutive time, beating
Franco Columbu. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia
contest, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional
bodybuilding.
Months before the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, filmmakers George
Butler and Robert Fiore persuaded Schwarzenegger to compete, in
order to film his training in the bodybuilding documentary called
Pumping Iron. Schwarzenegger
had only three months to prepare for the competition, after losing
significant weight to appear in the film
Stay Hungry with
Jeff Bridges.
Lou
Ferrigno proved not to be a threat, and a lighter-than-usual
Schwarzenegger convincingly won the 1975 Mr. Olympia.
Schwarzenegger came out of retirement, however, to compete in the
1980 Mr. Olympia. Schwarzenegger was training for his role in
Conan, and he
got into such good shape because of the running, horseback riding
and sword training, that he decided he wanted to win the Mr.
Olympia contest one last time. He kept this plan a secret, in the
event that a training accident would prevent his entry and cause
him to lose face. Schwarzenegger had been hired to provide
color commentary for network television,
when he announced at the eleventh hour that while he was there:
"Why not compete?" Schwarzenegger ended up winning the event with
only seven weeks of preparation. After being declared Mr. Olympia
for a seventh time, Schwarzenegger officially retired from
competition.
Steroid use
Schwarzenegger has admitted to using performance-enhancing
anabolic steroids while they were legal,
writing in 1967 that "steroids were helpful to me in maintaining
muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. I
did not use them for muscle growth, but rather for muscle
maintenance when
cutting up." He has
called the drugs "tissue building."
In 1999, Schwarzenegger sued Dr. Willi Heepe, a German doctor who
publicly predicted an early death for the bodybuilder, on the basis
of a link between steroid use and later heart problems. Because the
doctor had never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger collected
a
DM20,000 ($12,000 USD)
libel judgment against him in a German court. In 1999,
Schwarzenegger also sued and settled with
The Globe, a U.S. tabloid which had
made similar predictions about the bodybuilder's future health.
Schwarzenegger was born with a
bicuspid aortic valve, an aortic valve
with only two leaflets (a normal aortic valve has three leaflets).
As late as 1996, a year before Schwarzenegger's
open heart surgery to replace this
aortic valve with
a human homograft valve,
Schwarzenegger publicly defended his use of anabolic steroids
during his bodybuilding career.
Acting career
Schwarzenegger wanted to move from bodybuilding into acting,
finally achieving it when he was chosen to play the role of
Hercules in 1970's
Hercules in
New York. Credited under the name "Arnold Strong," his
accent in the film was so thick that his lines were
dubbed after production. His second
film appearance was as a
deaf and
mute hit-man for the mob in director
Robert Altman's
The Long Goodbye (1973), which
was followed by a much more significant part in the film
Stay Hungry (1976), for
which he was awarded a
Golden Globe
for New Male Star of the Year. Schwarzenegger has discussed his
early struggles in developing his acting career. "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."
Schwarzenegger drew attention and boosted his profile in the
bodybuilding film
Pumping Iron (1977), elements of which
were dramatized. In 1991, Schwarzenegger purchased the rights to
the film, its outtakes, and associated still photography.
Schwarzenegger auditioned for the title role of
The Incredible Hulk,
but did not win the role because of his height. Later,
Lou Ferrigno got the part of Dr. David Banner's
alter ego. Schwarzenegger appeared with
Kirk Douglas and
Ann-Margret in the 1979 comedy
The Villain. In 1980 he starred
in a
biopic of the 1950s actress
Jayne Mansfield as Mansfield's husband,
Mickey Hargitay.
Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was the
sword-and-sorcery epic
Conan the Barbarian in 1982,
which was a box-office hit. This was followed by a sequel,
Conan the Destroyer in
1984, although its box-office performance was disappointing. In
1983, Schwarzenegger starred in the promotional video "
Carnival in Rio".

Arnold Schwarzenegger's star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
In 1984, he made the first of three appearances as the titular
character and what some would say was the signature role in his
acting career in director
James
Cameron's
science-fiction
thriller film
The Terminator. Following
The
Terminator, Schwarzenegger made
Red Sonja in 1985, which "sank without
a trace."
During the 1980s, audiences had a large appetite for action films,
with both Schwarzenegger and
Sylvester Stallone becoming international
stars. Schwarzenegger's roles reflected his droll, often
self-deprecating sense of humor (including sometimes famously bad
puns), separating his roles from more serious
action hero fare. His alternative-universe comedy/thriller
Last Action Hero featured
a poster of the movie
Terminator 2: Judgment Day which, in
the fictional alternate universe, had
Sylvester Stallone as its star.
Following his arrival as a Hollywood superstar, he made a number of
successful films:
Commando
(1985),
Raw Deal
(1986),
The Running
Man (1987), and
Red Heat
(1988).
In Predator (1987), another successful
film, Schwarzenegger led a cast which included future Minnesota
Governor Jesse Ventura (Ventura also appeared in
The Running Man and
Batman &
Robin with Schwarzenegger) and future candidate for
governor of Kentucky Sonny Landham.
Twins (1988), a comedy
with
Danny DeVito, was a change of
pace, and also proved successful.
Total Recall (1990) netted
Schwarzenegger $10 million and 15% of the gross, and was a widely
praised, science-fiction script directed by Paul Verhoeven, based
on the
Philip K. Dick short story, "
We Can Remember It for You
Wholesale".
Kindergarten
Cop (1990) reunited him with director
Ivan Reitman, who directed him in
Twins.
Schwarzenegger had a brief foray into directing, first with a 1990
episode of the
TV series Tales from the Crypt,
entitled "
The
Switch," and then with the 1992
telemovie Christmas in Connecticut. He
has not directed since.
Schwarzenegger's commercial high-water mark was his return as the
title character in 1991's
Terminator 2: Judgment Day,
which was the highest-grossing film of 1991. In 1993, the
National Association of
Theatre Owners named him the "International Star of the
Decade." His next film project, the 1993 self-aware
action comedy spoof
Last Action Hero was
released opposite
Jurassic
Park, with the box office suffering accordingly. His next
film, the comedy drama
True Lies
(1994) was a highly popular spy film, and saw Schwarzenegger,
reunited with
The Terminator director
James Cameron, appearing opposite
Jamie Lee Curtis.
Shortly thereafter came the comedy
Junior (1994), the last of his three
collaborations with Ivan Reitman and again co-starring
Danny DeVito. This film brought Schwarzenegger
his second Golden Globe nomination, this time for
Best Actor Musical or Comedy. It was followed by the action
thriller
Eraser (1996) and
the
comic book-based
Batman & Robin (1997),
where he played the villain
Mr. Freeze.
This was his final film before taking time to recuperate from a
back injury. Following the critical failure of
Batman &
Robin, Schwarzenegger's film career and box office prominence
went into decline.
Several film projects were announced with Schwarzenegger attached
to star, including the remake of
Planet of the Apes, a
new film version of
I Am
Legend, and a
World War II
film scripted by
Quentin Tarantino
that would have seen Schwarzenegger play an Austrian for the third
time (after
Junior and
Kindergarten Cop).
Instead, he returned after a hiatus with the supernatural thriller
End of Days (1999),
later followed by the action films
The
6th Day (2000) and
Collateral Damage (2002) all
of which failed to do well at the box office. In 2003, he made his
third appearance as the title character in
Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines, which went on to earn over $150 million
domestically.
In tribute to Schwarzenegger in 2002, Forum Stadtpark, a local
cultural association, proposed plans to build a 25-meter (82-foot)
tall
Terminator statue in a park in central Graz.
Schwarzenegger reportedly said he was flattered, but thought the
money would be better spent on social projects and the
Special Olympics.
His latest film appearances included a 3-second cameo appearance in
The Rundown (AKA,
Welcome
to the Jungle) with
The Rock,
and the 2004 remake of
Around the World in 80
Days, where he appeared onscreen with action star
Jackie Chan for the first time.
Schwarzenegger voiced Baron von Steuben in Episode 24 ("Valley Forge
") of Liberty's
Kids. In 2005 he appeared as himself in the film
The Kid & I.
Schwarzenegger had been rumored to be appearing in
Terminator Salvation as the
original T-800 model, alongside
Roland
Kickinger. Schwarzenegger denied his involvement, but it was
later revealed that although he would appear briefly he would not
be shooting new footage, and his image would be inserted into the
movie from an earlier film.
Political career
Early politics
Schwarzenegger has been a registered
Republican for many years.
As an actor, his political views were always well-known as they
contrasted with those of many other prominent Hollywood stars, who
are generally considered to be a
liberal and
Democratic-leaning
community. At the
2004 Republican National
Convention, Schwarzenegger gave a speech and explained why he
was a Republican:
In 1985, Schwarzenegger appeared in
Stop the Madness, an anti-
drug music video sponsored by the
Reagan administration.
He first came to wide public notice as a Republican during the
1988
Presidential election, accompanying then-
Vice President George H.W. Bush at a campaign rally.
Schwarzenegger's first political appointment was as chairman of the
President's
Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, on which he served from
1990 to 1993. He was nominated by George H. W. Bush, who dubbed him
"
Conan the Republican". He later
served as Chairman for the California Governor's Council on
Physical Fitness and Sports under Governor
Pete Wilson. Yet, political analysts have
identified Schwarzenegger as a liberal, as he has become more
left-leaning since his election.
Between 1993 and 1994, Schwarzenegger was a Red Cross ambassador (a
mostly ceremonial role fulfilled by celebrities), recording several
television/radio
public
service announcements to give blood. A small amount of interest
was garnered by his wearing of a white t-shirt with the Red Cross
on it, while posing with a flexed arm; the image made it into
several celebrity magazines.
In an interview with
Talk
magazine in late 1999, Schwarzenegger was asked if he thought of
running for office. He replied, "I think about it many times. The
possibility is there, because I feel it inside."
The Hollywood Reporter claimed
shortly after that Schwarzenegger sought to end speculation that he
might run for
governor of
California. Following his initial comments, Schwarzenegger
said, "I'm in show business I am in the middle of my career. Why
would I go away from that and jump into something else?"
Governor of California
Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy in the
2003 California recall
election for Governor of California on the August 6, 2003 episode
of
The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno. As a candidate in the recall election,
Schwarzenegger had the most name recognition in a crowded field of
candidates, but he had never held public office and his political
views were unknown to most Californians. His candidacy immediately
became national and international news, with media outlets dubbing
him the "Governator" (referring to
The Terminator movies,
see above) and "The Running Man" (the name of another one of his
films), and calling the recall election "Total Recall" (yet another
Schwarzenegger starrer). Schwarzenegger declined to participate in
several debates with other recall replacement candidates, and
appeared in only one debate on September 24, 2003.
On October 7, 2003, the recall election resulted in Governor
Gray Davis being removed from office with
55.4% of the
Yes vote in favor of a recall. Schwarzenegger
was elected Governor of California under the second question on the
ballot with 48.6% of the vote to choose a successor to Davis.
Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat
Cruz
Bustamante, fellow Republican
Tom
McClintock, and others. His nearest rival, Bustamante, received
31% of the vote. In total, Schwarzenegger won the election by about
1.3 million votes. Under the regulations of the
California Constitution, no runoff
election was required. Schwarzenegger was the first foreign-born
governor of California since Irish-born Governor
John G. Downey
in 1862.
As soon as Schwarzenegger was elected governor,
Willie Brown said he would start a
drive to recall the governor. Schwarzenegger was equally entrenched
in what he considered to be his mandate in cleaning up
gridlock. Building on a catchphrase from a sketch
partly parodying his bodybuilding career, Schwarzenegger called the
Democratic State politicians "
girlie men"
(a reference from a
Saturday
Night Live sketch called "
Hans
and Franz").
Schwarzenegger's early victories included repealing an unpopular
increase in the vehicle registration fee as well as preventing
driver's licenses being given out to illegal immigrants, but later
began to feel the backlash when powerful state unions began to
oppose his various initiatives. Key among his reckoning with
political realities was a
special election he called
in November 2005, in which four ballot measures he sponsored were
defeated. Schwarzenegger accepted personal responsibility for the
defeats and vowed to continue to seek consensus for the people of
California. He would later comment that "no one could win if the
opposition raised 160 million dollars to defeat you".
Schwarzenegger then went against the advice of fellow Republican
strategists and appointed a Democrat, Susan Kennedy, as his Chief
of Staff. Schwarzenegger gradually moved towards a more politically
moderate position, determined to build a winning legacy with only a
short time to go until the next gubernatorial election.
He has appeared alongside his fellow actor from
Around the World in 80
Days,
Jackie Chan, in a
government advertisement to combat
copyright infringement.
Schwarzenegger ran for re-election against
Democrat Phil Angelides, the
California State Treasurer, in
the
2006
elections, held on November 7, 2006. Despite a poor year
nationally for the Republican party, Schwarzenegger won re-election
with 56.0% of the vote compared with 38.9% for Angelides, a margin
of well over one million votes. In recent years, many commentators
have seen Schwarzenegger as moving away from the right and towards
the center of the political spectrum. After hearing a speech by
Schwarzenegger at the 2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast, San
Francisco mayor
Gavin Newsom said that,
"[H]e's becoming a Democrat [... H]e's running back, not even to
the center. I would say center-left".
It is rumored that Schwarzenegger may run for the
United States Senate in 2010, as his
governorship will be term-limited by that time.
Wendy Leigh, who wrote an unofficial biography on Schwarzenegger,
claims he plotted his political rise from an early age using the
movie business and
bodybuilding as
building blocks to escape a depressing home. Leigh portrays
Schwarzenegger as obsessed with power and quotes him as saying, "I
wanted to be part of the small percentage of people who were
leaders, not the large mass of followers. I think it is because I
saw leaders use 100% of their potential I was always fascinated by
people in control of other people." Schwarzenegger has said that it
was never his intention to enter
politics,
but he says, "I married into a political family. You get together
with them and you hear about policy, about reaching out to help
people. I was exposed to the idea of being a public servant and
Eunice and
Sargent Shriver became my
heroes." Eunice Kennedy Shriver was sister of
John F. Kennedy, and
mother-in-law to Schwarzenegger, Sargent
Shriver is husband to Eunice and
father-in-law to Schwarzenegger. According to
the 2005 Year-in-Review issue of
Time magazine, supporters of
Schwarzenegger are hoping to amend the
Constitution so that he can run for
President of the United
States; he currently cannot run because he is not a
natural born citizen
of the United States. In
The
Simpsons Movie, Schwarzenegger is portrayed as the
President and in the Sylvester Stallone movie
Demolition Man; it is revealed
there was an amendment to the constitution passed which allowed him
to run for President.
Schwarzenegger is a dual Austria/United States citizen. He holds
Austrian citizenship by birth and has held U.S. citizenship since
becoming naturalized in 1983. Being Austrian and thus European he
was able to win the 2007
European
Voice campaigner of the year award for taking action against
climate change with the California
Global Warming Solutions
Act of 2006 and plans to introduce an emissions trading scheme
with other US states and possibly with the EU. Still,
Schwarzenegger has always identified with his American citizenship,
and has shown great affinity for the state of California beyond his
foreign birth.
Schwarzenegger does not accept his governor's salary of $175,000
per year.
Schwarzenegger's endorsement in the
Republican
primary of the
2008
U.S. Presidential
election was highly sought; despite being good friends with
candidates
Rudy Giuliani and Senator
John McCain, Schwarzenegger remained
neutral throughout 2007 and early 2008. Giuliani dropped out of the
Presidential race on January 30, 2008, largely because of a poor
showing in Florida, and endorsed McCain.
Later that night,
Schwarzenegger was in the audience at a Republican debate at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library
in Simi Valley
, California
. The following day, he endorsed McCain,
joking, "It's Rudy's fault!" (in reference to his friendships with
both candidates and that he could not make up his mind).
Schwarzenegger's endorsement was thought to be a boost for Senator
McCain's campaign; both spoke about their concerns for the
environment and economy.
Amendment of Three Strikes Law
Governor Schwarzenegger played a significant role in opposing
Proposition 66, a
proposed amendment of the Californian
Three Strikes Law, in November 2004. This
amendment would have required the third felony to be either violent
or serious in order to mandate a 25-years-to-life sentence. In the
last week before the ballot, Schwarzenegger launched an intensive
campaign against Proposition 66. He stated that "it would release
26,000 dangerous criminals and rapists".
Electoral history
Environmental record
On September 27, 2006 Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating the
nation’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. The law set new
regulations on the amount of emissions utilities, refineries and
manufacturing plants are allowed to release into the atmosphere.
Schwarzenegger also signed a second global warming bill that
prohibits large utilities and corporations in California from
making long-term contracts with suppliers who do not meet the
state’s greenhouse gas emission standards. The two bills are part
of a plan to reduce California’s emissions by 25 percent to 1990’s
levels by 2020. In 2005, Schwarzenegger issued an executive order
calling to reduce greenhouse gases to 80 percent below 1990 levels
by 2050.
Schwarzenegger signed another executive order on October 17, 2006
allowing California to work with the Northeast’s Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative. They plan to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by issuing a limited amount of carbon credits to each
power plant in participating states. Any power plants that exceed
emissions for the amount of carbon credits they have will have to
purchase more credits to cover the difference. The plan is set to
be in effect in 2009. In addition to using his political power to
fight global warming, the governor has taken steps at his home to
reduce his personal carbon footprint. Schwarzenegger has adapted
one of his
Hummers to run on hydrogen and
another to run on biofuels. He has also installed solar panels to
heat his home.
In
respect of his contribution to the direction of the US motor
industry, Schwarzenegger was invited to open the 2009 SAE World Congress in
Detroit
, on April 20, 2009.
Schwarzenegger Fuck you veto memo
In October 2009 Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Governor of California
appeared at a Democratic Party fundraiser at San Francisco's
Fairmont Hotel. Though the governor
was a prominent member of the Republican party he had been invited
by the organizers. Many in the room thought the governor’s
appearance was, as
Tom Ammiano described
it, a "cheap publicity stunt." When former San Francisco Mayor
Willie Brown introduced
Schwarzenegger, Ammiano shouted "You lie!" in a copy-cat of
Representative
Joe
Wilson's remarks during President
Barack Obama's congressional address a month
earlier. Ammiano walked out stating that Schwarzenegger could "kiss
my gay ass."
Four days after the fundraiser, Schwarzenegger vetoed a Assembly
Bill 1176 authored by Ammiano that had cleared the State Senate
40-0 and the Assembly 78-0. Ammiano was sent a memo from
Schwarzenegger explaining the veto. The letter, in the form of an
acrostic, contained the
cryptic message "
Fuck You"
spelled out using the first letter of each line along the left
margin. The memo was widely reported on and seen as both generally
offensive and retaliatory. Some news media also noted the odds that
spelling out "Fuck You" in the memo being just a coincidence was
quite unlikely.
Personal life
In 1977, Schwarzenegger's autobiography/weight-training guide
Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder was published and
became a huge success.
After taking English classes at Santa Monica
College
in Santa
Monica
, California, he earned a B.A. by correspondence from the University of
Wisconsin–Superior
, where he graduated Business and International
Economics, in 1979.
On April
26, 1986, Schwarzenegger married television journalist Maria Shriver, niece of the past President of the United
States John F. Kennedy, in
Hyannis,
Massachusetts
. The Rev. John Baptist Riordan performed the
ceremony at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church.
They have four
children: Katherine Eunice Shriver Schwarzenegger (born December
13, 1989 in Los Angeles, California
); Christina Maria Aurelia Schwarzenegger (born July
23, 1991 in Los Angeles, California
); Patrick Arnold Schwarzenegger (born September 18,
1993 in Los
Angeles, California
); and Christopher Sargent Shriver Schwarzenegger
(born September 27, 1997 in Los Angeles, California
).
Schwarzenegger and his family currently live
in their 11,000-square-foot (1 022 m²) home in Brentwood
. They used to own a home in the Pacific Palisades
. The family owns vacation homes in Sun Valley,
Idaho
and Hyannis Port, Massachusetts
. Schwarzenegger does not have a home in
Sacramento
. However, whenever he is in the state
capital, he lives in a
Hyatt Regency
hotel suite. The suite costs about $65,000 a year.
On Sundays, the family attends
Mass
at St. Monica's Catholic Church.
Schwarzenegger has said he believes the secret of a good
marriage is
love and
respect.
"If you have the ultimate love for your
wife and she has it for you, I think you have a great head start …
That's not to say it won't be difficult sometimes. You go
through your ups and downs but you work through it."
Schwarzenegger has talked about parenthood in 2000:
"One of the
best things you can do with your children is play with them.
At the same time, I act very silly. Many times I do a
lot of sports with them. I play games with them.
Act out parts. We do little plays,
sometimes."
His official height of 6'2" (188 cm) has been brought into
question by several articles. In his bodybuilding days in the late
1960s, he was measured to be 6'1.5", a height confirmed by his
fellow bodybuilders. However, in 1988 both the
Daily Mail
and
Time Out magazine mentioned that Schwarzenegger
appeared noticeably shorter. More recently, before running for
Governor, Schwarzenegger's height was once again questioned in an
article by the
Chicago Reader. As
Governor, Schwarzenegger engaged in a light-hearted exchange with
Assemblyman Herb Wesson over their heights. At one point Wesson
made an unsuccessful attempt to, in his own words,
"[s]ettle
this once and for all and find out how tall he is". by using a
tailor's tape measure on the Governor. Schwarzenegger retaliated by
placing a pillow stitched with the words "Need a lift?" on the
five-foot-five inch (165 cm) Wesson's chair before a
negotiating session in his office.
Bob
Mulholland also claimed Arnold was 5'10" and that he wore
risers in his boots. The debate on Schwarzenegger's height has
spawned a website solely dedicated to the issue, and his page
remains one of the most active on CelebHeights.com, a website which
discusses the heights of celebrities.
In 2005,
Peter Pilz, from the
Austrian Green Party, demanded that
parliament revoke Schwarzenegger's Austrian citizenship. This
demand was based on Article 33 of the Austrian Citizenship Act that
states:
A citizen, who is in the public service of a foreign
country, shall be deprived of his citizenship, if he heavily
damages the reputation or the interests of the Austrian
Republic. Pilz claimed that Schwarzenegger's actions in
support of the death penalty (prohibited in Austria under Protocol
13 of the
European
Convention on Human Rights) had indeed done damage to Austria's
reputation. Schwarzenegger explained his actions by referring to
the fact that his only duty as Governor of California was to
prevent an error in the judicial system.
Schwarzenegger's home town of Graz
had its
soccer stadium named
The Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium in his
honor. It is the home of both
Grazer
AK and
Sturm Graz. Following the
Stanley Williams execution and
after street protests in his hometown, several local politicians
began a campaign to remove Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium.
Schwarzenegger responded, saying that
"to spare the responsible
politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from
them as of this day the right to use my name in association with
the Liebenau Stadium", and set a tight deadline of just a
couple of days to remove his name. Graz officials removed
Schwarzenegger's name from the stadium in December 2005.
It is now
officially titled UPC-Arena
.
The Sun Valley Resort has a short ski trail called
Arnold's
Run, named after Schwarzenegger (It was named after him in
2001). The trail is categorized as a black diamond, or most
difficult, for its terrain.
He bought the first
Hummer manufactured for
civilian use in 1992, a model so large,
6,300 lb (2900 kg) and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, that it is
classified as a large truck and U.S. fuel economy regulations do
not apply to it. During the Gubernatorial Recall campaign he
announced that he would convert one of his Hummers to burn
hydrogen. The conversion was reported to have cost about
US$21,000. After the election, he
signed an executive order to jump-start the building of hydrogen
refueling plants called the California Hydrogen Highway Network,
and gained a
U.S. Department of Energy grant to help
pay for its projected US$91,000,000 cost. California took delivery
of the first H2H (Hydrogen Hummer) in October 2004.
People in
Thal
celebrated
Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday by throwing a party.
Officials proclaimed A Day for Arnold on July 30, 2007. Thal 145,
the number of the house where Schwarzenegger was born, belonged to
Schwarzenegger and nobody will ever be assigned to that
number.
Accidents and medical issues
Schwarzenegger broke his right femur while skiing in Sun Valley, Idaho
with his family on December 23, 2006. He
tripped over his ski pole on Lower Warm Springs run on Bald
Mountain, an 'easy' or green level run. He is an expert level
skier. On December 26, 2006, he underwent a 90-minute operation in
which cables and screws were used to wire the broken bone back
together. He was released from the
St. John's Health Center on
December 30, 2006. Schwarzenegger did not delay his second oath of
office on January 5, 2007, although he was still on crutches at the
time.
Schwarzenegger has twice crashed motorcycles on public highways,
injuring himself in the process. On January 8, 2006, while riding
his
Harley Davidson motorcycle in Los Angeles, with his son Patrick
in the sidecar, another driver backed into the street he was riding
on, causing him and his son to collide with the car at a low speed.
While his son and the other driver were unharmed, the governor
sustained a minor injury to his lip, forcing him to get 15
stitches. "No citations were issued", said
Officer Jason Lee, a
Los
Angeles Police Department spokesman.
Schwarzenegger, who
famously rode motorcycles in the
Terminator movies, has never obtained an M-1 or M-2
endorsement on his California
driver's license
that would allow him to legally ride a motorcycle without a sidecar
on the street. Previously, on December 9, 2001, he broke six
ribs and was hospitalized for four days after a
motorcycle crash in Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger opted in 1997 for a replacement heart valve made of
his own transplanted tissue; medical experts predict he will
require heart valve replacement surgery in the next two to eight
years as his current valve degrades. Schwarzenegger apparently
opted against a mechanical valve, the only permanent solution
available at the time of his surgery, because it would have sharply
limited his physical activity and capacity to exercise.
He saved a drowning man's life in 2004 while on vacation in Hawaii
by swimming out and bringing him back to shore.
Schwarzenegger’s private jet made an
emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport
on June 19, 2009 after the pilot reported smoke
coming from the cockpit, according to a statement released by the
governor’s press secretary. No one was harmed in the
incident.
Business career
Schwarzenegger has also had a highly successful business career.
Following his move to the United States, Schwarzenegger became a
"prolific goal setter" and would write his objectives at the start
of the year on
index cards, like starting
a mail order business or buying a new car and succeed in doing so.
By the age of 30, Schwarzenegger was a millionaire, well before his
career in Hollywood. His financial independence came from a series
of successful business ventures and investments. In 1968,
Schwarzenegger and fellow bodybuilder
Franco Columbu started a bricklaying
business.
The business flourished thanks to the pair's
marketing savvy and an increased demand following a major Los
Angeles earthquake
in 1971. Schwarzenegger and Columbu used
profits from their bricklaying venture to start a mail order
business, selling bodybuilding and fitness-related equipment and
instructional tapes. Schwarzenegger rolled profits from the mail
order business and his bodybuilding competition winnings into his
first real estate venture: an apartment building he purchased for
$10,000. He would go on to invest in a number of real estate
holding companies.
In 1992, Schwarzenegger and his wife opened
a restaurant in Santa
Monica
called Schatzi On Main.
Schatzi literally means "little treasure," colloquial for
"honey" or "darling" in German. In 1998, he sold his restaurant.
He
invested in a shopping mall in Columbus
, Ohio
. He
has talked about some of those who have helped him over the years
in business: "I couldn't have learned about business without a
parade of teachers guiding me... from
Milton Friedman to
Donald Trump... and now,
Les Wexner and
Warren
Buffett. I even learned a thing or two from Planet Hollywood,
such as when to get out! And I did!" He has significant ownership
in
Dimensional Fund
Advisors, an investment firm.
Planet Hollywood
Schwarzenegger was a founding celebrity investor in the
Planet Hollywood chain of international
theme restaurants (modeled after the
Hard
Rock Cafe) along with
Bruce Willis,
Sylvester Stallone, and
Demi Moore. Schwarzenegger severed his financial
ties with the business in early 2000. Schwarzenegger said the
company had not had the success he had hoped for, claiming he
wanted to focus his attention on "new US global business ventures"
and his movie career.
Net worth
Schwarzenegger's net worth has been conservatively estimated at
between $100–$200 million. Over the years, he invested his
bodybuilding and
movie
earnings in an array of
stocks,
bonds, privately controlled
companies, and
real
estate holdings worldwide, so a more accurate estimation of his
net worth is difficult to calculate, particularly in light of
declining real estate values owing to economic recessions in the
USA and Europe. In June 1997, Schwarzenegger spent $38 million of
his own money on a private Gulfstream Jet. Schwarzenegger once said
of his fortune,
"Money doesn't make you happy. I now
have $50 million, but I was just as happy when I had $48
million." He has also stated
"I've made many millions as a
businessman many times over."
Allegations of sexual and personal misconduct
During his initial campaign for governor, allegations of sexual and
personal misconduct were raised against Schwarzenegger (dubbed
Gropegate). Within the last five days before the election,
news reports appeared in the
Los
Angeles Times recounting allegations of sexual misconduct
from several individual women, six of whom eventually came forward
with their personal stories.
Three of the women claimed he had grabbed their breasts, a fourth
said he placed his hand under her skirt on her buttock. A fifth
woman claimed Schwarzenegger tried to take off her bathing suit in
a hotel elevator, and the last says he pulled her onto his lap and
asked her about a particular sex act.
Schwarzenegger admitted that he has "behaved badly sometimes" and
apologized, but also stated that
"a lot of [what] you see in
the stories is not true". This came after an interview in
adult magazine
Oui from 1977
surfaced, in which Schwarzenegger discussed attending sexual orgies
and using substances such as
marijuana. Schwarzenegger is shown smoking a
marijuana joint after winning
Mr.
Olympia in the 1975 documentary film
Pumping Iron. In an interview with
GQ magazine in October 2007, Schwarzenegger said,
"[Marijuana] is not a drug. It's a leaf. My
drug was pumping iron, trust me." His spokesperson later said
the comment was meant to be a joke.
British television personality
Anna Richardson settled a libel
lawsuit in August 2006 against Schwarzenegger, his top aide, Sean
Walsh, and his publicist, Sheryl Main. A joint statement read:
"The parties are content to put this matter behind them and are
pleased that this legal dispute has now been settled."
Richardson claimed they tried to tarnish her reputation by
dismissing her allegations that Schwarzenegger touched her breast
during a press event (for
The 6th
Day) in London. She claimed Walsh and Main libeled her in
a
Los Angeles Times article when they contended she
encouraged his behavior.
References
Bibliography
Interviews
Film
- "Arnold Schwarzenegger Hollywood Hero" DVD ~ Todd Baker
- "Pumping Iron" (25th Anniversary
Special Edition) DVD ~ George Butler
External links
- Official
- Election websites
- Nonpartisan
- Unofficial