By Damilola Adegoke
Veteran Austrian and American actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger was born 30th of July, 1947 in Thal, Austria.
The Austrian-born American bodybuilder, film actor, and politician rose to fame through roles in blockbuster action movies and later served as governor of California (2003–11).
Schwarzenegger was known as Austrian Oak, in the bodybuilding world, where he dwarfed his competitors. He won his first amateur Mr. Universe title in 1967.
After moving to California in 1968 to train and compete in bigger events in the United States, he won three more Mr. Universe titles and then the professional Mr. Olympia title six years in a row (1970–75) before retiring. He surprised the bodybuilding world by returning to competition one more time to claim the Mr. Olympia title in 1980.
Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger pursued his childhood dream of acting in movies. In his first film, Hercules in New York (1970), Schwarzenegger played the lead, but another actor was used to dub his dialog.
He became an international star with The Terminator (1984) and over the next 20 years appeared in two sequels. His other films included Predator (1987), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Total Recall (1990), True Lies (1994), and The 6th Day (2000).
Although Schwarzenegger had put his movie career on hold to devote attention to politics, in 2010 he made a comeback in “The Expendables”, an action film that brought together several aging stars of the genre.
The Last Stand (2013) marked his first leading role in 10 years. He later starred with Sylvester Stallone in the action thriller “Escape Plan” (2013), took top billing in the action drama “Sabotage” (2014), and reprised his Terminator role in “Terminator Genisys” (2015) and “Terminator: Dark Fate” (2019).
In July 2011 a museum dedicated to Schwarzenegger’s life opened in his childhood home in Thal, Austria. The following year he published the memoir Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (written with Peter Petre).
Arnold Schwarzenegger has five children. He has four kids with his ex-wife, Maria Shriver. He is also father to Joseph Baena, a son he had with his housekeeper while still married to Shriver.
