Mister Olympia, action hero, governor, environmentalist and Kremlin critic: Arnold Schwarzenegger has had an eventful life. Now the native Austrian and American by choice is celebrating his 75th birthday.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: the man with many roles
The “Terminator”, the android killing machine from the future, is notorious for being almost indestructible. Arnold Schwarzenegger has played the title role several times during his career, and it almost seems as if he has it essential characteristic of his alter ego. Even at 75 he is still in front of the camera – less as an action actor, more as a Kremlin critic and environmentalist. The muscles have weakened, the stronger the words. He uses his popularity and takes a clear position on earth-shattering events via his social media channels – this does not always make him popular with former party friends.
He has positioned himself clearly and unequivocally in several statements on Russia's war in Ukraine. In March, Schwarzenegger addressed the Russian people in a moving video message to stand up to Moscow's propaganda. The government lied to the population and the soldiers about the real reasons for the war in Ukraine. In the video, he remembers his father, who was “physically and mentally broken” by Nazi propaganda. “I don't want you to be broken like my father was,” says Schwarzenegger, addressing the Russian soldiers. “This is not the war in defense of Russia that your grandfathers or great-grandfathers fought.”
The beginning of a legend
Arnold Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal in Styria, Austria. Even as a child he practiced various sports such as soccer, boxing and swimming and at the age of 15 he entered a weightlifting studio for the first time. A fateful experience. In the years that followed, the young Schwarzenegger steeled his body. “You have to take on every single muscle – that's exactly the work of the sculptor, who works the marble with a hammer and chisel. The mind of a bodybuilder has to be that of an artist – not quite Rodin's, but it's going in that direction,” he explains to “Zeit” in 2012. In 1967 he becomes the youngest “Mr. Universe” and has won the title of “Mr. Olympia” six times in a row since 1970, the most important award in bodybuilding he frankly – after all, it wasn't banned back then.
Powerhouse Schwarzenegger in the seventies< /p>
New artist friends
When the muscular man emigrated to the USA in 1968, his imposing appearance quickly aroused the interest of the film industry there. In 1969 Schwarzenegger, then still under the stage name “Arnold Strong” got his first role as “Hercules in New York”, but he also cavorted in the art scene. Pop art icon Andy Warhol likes the young Arnold: “He was fascinated by my energy, by my strength. Andy invited me to the Factory, I posed for him, he introduced me to other artists like Jamie Wyeth or Laraine Newman before,” he recalls in a “Zeit” interview. “At Studio 54 and Elaine's he took me from table to table and introduced me to producers, fundraisers, actors like James Caan and Woody Allen and important members of society like Jackie Kennedy. Years later, Schwarzenegger himself becomes part of the most famous family ;Americas when he married Maria Shriver, niece of US President John F. Kennedy, in 1986.
His film career picked up speed in 1977: For the semi-documentary bodybuilder film “Pumping Iron”, Schwarzenegger was awarded the Golden Globe as best young actor, surprising the critics. 1982's “Conan the Barbarian” propels him internationally, and then in 1984 comes an offer to play the title role in a B-movie called “Terminator.” According to Schwarzenegger, it was “a big challenge”. He plays the android killer so convincingly that the low-budget production by director James Cameron quickly achieved cult status.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
This film made Arnold Schwarzenegger internationally known. He plays a slave who has to go through numerous adventures after his liberation – and thanks to his muscle mass he manages to do it again and again. The fantasy film, which was shot in Spain, dispenses with dialogue in many scenes and uses expressive music instead.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Terminator (1984)
“Arnie” had even less text to cope with in “Terminator”: As a killing machine from the future, he gets by with about 70 words – in the entire film. However, the phrase “I'll be back” went down in history as one of the most famous movie quotes. The low-budget production by “Titanic” director James Cameron quickly achieved cult status and is considered a milestone in the action genre.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Twins (1988)
It doesn't always have to be action: alongside Danny DeVito (picture) as the unequal twin brother, Schwarzenegger ventured a first genre change. The comedy “Twins” was a commercial success – and the former bodybuilder from Styria was one of the best-paid actors in Hollywood at the end of the 80s.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
James Cameron's “T2” was the first Hollywood film to cost more than $100 million. It grossed about five times as much. This time, Schwarzenegger's Terminator is programmed to save humanity. He succeeds – but of course only until the next visitation from the future. The main line of the strip: “Hasta la vista, baby.”
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
True Lies (1994)
Success with action movies, success with comedy – what's next? Sure, an action comedy. True Lies is Cameron and Schwarzenegger's third film together. In it, Schwarzenegger plays an agent who keeps his job a secret from his wife (played by Jamie Lee Curtis, picture). Of course, that doesn't go well forever. Critics and fans alike enjoyed themselves.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops at the cinema
Batman and Robin (1997)
Arnold Schwarzenegger was nominated for the Golden Raspberry as the villain “Mr. Freeze” (here in conversation with Poison Ivy, played by Uma Thurman). The dubious award for the worst acting performance passed him by, but overall Tim Burton's film fared rather poorly, which is why Hollywood mothballed the batman for the time being.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines (2012)
After a few flops, Schwarzenegger slipped into his prime role for the third time. The fact that the Terminator in the original still speaks English with an Austrian touch didn't seem to bother the viewers. Schwarzenegger himself claims that he only uses the accent for the sake of his fans. After “T3” he said goodbye to the film business – and became governor of California.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Terminator: Genisys (2015)
Yes, the Terminator again. But you have to admit that the character changes over the course of the films and doesn't take himself that seriously anymore. Here the T-800, played by 67-year-old Schwarzenegger, is allowed to have a few gray hairs and is affectionately called “Dads”. Nevertheless, he is of course still able to save heroine Sarah Connor and all of humanity from destruction.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Tops and flops in the cinema
Terminator – Dark Fate (20019)
Did we last see Schwarzenegger as the Terminator in Dark Fate? Again, two Terminators are sent back to the present from a future where the machines have risen against the humans. It reunites with Linda Hamilton in her iconic role as Sarah Connor. The reviews were mixed, economically the film was a flop.
The governor
Now Schwarzenegger is in demand. The fees rise, in the late 80s and early 90s he celebrates commercial success, also with comedies like “Twins” (Zwillinge) alongside Danny deVito and “Kindergarten Cop”. But then the biggest one is Hype around him over. After the third “Terminator” (2003), Schwarzenegger said goodbye to film to tackle his third career: as a politician.
In 2003 he is running for the Republicans for the gubernatorial election of the US state of California. He brings his sword from “Conan the Barbarian” to Sacramento, presents himself as the strongman that debt-ridden California needs and describes his political opponents as “sissies”. But he first has to get used to his new job: “As an actor you have a script, that doesn't exist for politicians. Every day was a new surprise, hour by hour, it's crazy how many problems there are, social assistance , poverty, overcrowded prisons — you wake up in the morning to 2,000 wildfires in California, or someone is on death row scheduled to be executed at midnight, and you call them up and say, 'Governor, you could stop this,'” he said in 2013 the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. Schwarzenegger is a supporter of the death penalty: He rejected two clemency petitions as governor before a federal judge declared the 2006 lethal injection unconstitutional.
The governor: Schwarzenegger in the role of politician (2009)
End of political career
Schwarzenegger stayed in office for eight years, but first he tangled too often with the Democrats, who hold the parliamentary majority, and then suddenly the conservative became an environmental activist. This in turn annoys his party friends. Schwarzenegger leaves California with a mountain of debt that is about three times as high as when he took office: $91 billion. Nevertheless, he would have believed himself capable of the highest office in the state, self-confident as he is, but this door remains closed to him, since only native Americans are allowed to become president.
Instead, Schwarzenegger returns to film, shooting, of course, two more films from the Terminator series (“Genisys” (2015) and “Dark Fate” (2019)). He is currently in the middle of the production of the Netflix spy series “Fubar” (recently renamed “Utap”).
Environmentalists and Kremlin critics
But just one role hasn't been enough for the former politician for a long time. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the fight against climate change his mission. In his speeches, such as at this year's Austrian World Summit, an annual climate conference in Vienna co-organized by his Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative platform, he relies on new technologies and urges people to turn away from fossil fuels. “We have blood on our hands,” said the ex-bodybuilder. With its billions in payments to Russia for fuel imports, Europe would help finance Moscow's war of aggression in Ukraine.
He also doesn't mince his words when criticizing politicians in his own country. In an emotional video released immediately after the Capitol storm on January 6, 2021, Schwarzenegger called Donald Trump a liar, a coup plotter, and a failed leader. “He will go down in history as the worst president ever.” But America will overcome these dark days and come back stronger, “because we now understand what we have to lose,” he says in the video. At the time, Schwarzenegger expressed his support for Democrat Joe Biden Austrian-born Schwarzenegger represents the embodiment of the American dream like only a few Europeans before him. As “Terminator” (1984) he coined the legendary phrase “I'll be back” (I'll be back). Arnold Schwarzenegger has still kept this promise to date always adhered to and does not plan to leave the stage so quickly, even at 75.
This is an updated version of a text from 2017.