A former worldchampion bodybuilder who became the most consistently popular action star of the 1980s. Unlike Sylvester Stallone, his closest competitor in both body mass and acting style, Arnold Schwarzenegger has starred in tightly made lowerbudget movies that have been remarkably reliable moneymakers. In his rise to stardom, he overcame such obstacles as an impossibly long last name, a thick Austrian accent, and a gap-toothed appearance. He attained his goal thanks to public fascination with his massively muscled body, his undeniable star presence, and his savvy in recognizing his weaknesses and picking his projects accordingly.
Born the son of a policeman in a small Austrian village, Arnold Schwarzenegger began to lift weights as a form of training for soccer and swimming. By the age of 15, however, he had become seriously involved in what was then the fringe sport of bodybuilding. At the age of 18, he won his first title, Junior Mr. Europe. He would go on to win a great many other titles including Mr. Olympia. In fact, by the time he appeared as the focus of the highly regarded documentary Pumping Iron (1977), he had been world champion for eight consecutive years.
Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in the United States at 21 to continue his pursuit of bodybuilding fame. To make a living, he formed a construction company in Los Angeles called Pumping Bricks. Later, when he became a modestly wellknown name outside of the bodybuilding world due to the success of Pumping Iron, Arnold Schwarzenegger decided to become an actor. The consensus of many at the time was that the good reviews Arnold Schwarzenegger received while playing himself in Pumping Iron had gone to his head. His effort to break into the movie business was considered a joke.
Five years later, however, Arnold Schwarzenegger was cast in the perfect vehicle, playing the title character in John Milius's Conan the Barbarian (1982). He had just a few lines of dialogue, but he was the center of the film, showing off his magnificent torso in a lively, if violent, sword-and-sorcery action film. The critics might have sneered, but Conan and its sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984), grossed a combined total of $100 million. Arnold Schwarzenegger was fast becoming a force with whom to be reckoned.
The turning point in Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting career came with his mesmerizing villain's role in The Terminator (1984). It was a sleeper hit made on a low budget; the key factor in Arnold Schwarzenegger's favor was that he held the screen without taking off most of his clothes and rippling his muscles. Red Sonja (1985) was a modest disappointment - mostly due to the poor acting by the two female stars, Brigitte Nielsen and Sandahl Bergman. But that one film aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies have been box-office winners. His ability to be likable despite his imposing bulk has made him a film favorite of a great many male moviegoers.
With a string of hits that includes Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), Running Man (1987), Predator (1987), and Red Heat (1988), his films took in more than $500 million in boxoffice receipts. During the 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger continued in the action sequels Terminator 2 (1991), which, of course, then led to Terminator 3 (2003). In 1990, he starred in Total Recall, a mind-bender based on Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember It for You Wholesale.
Although he has been associated primarily with action films, he has also been successful with comedy. His physique, accent, and mien are so incompatible with comic conventions that the incongruity itself becomes comic. In a sense, he parodies himself. Danny De Vito has been his best collaborator, with the size disparity becoming comic, especially in Twins (1988), where the two portray unlikely "twins." Using the same kind of improbability stretched to improbable limits, the two appeared again in Junior (1994), in which the macho Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes pregnant.
In Kindergarten Cop (1990), the title reflects the paradoxical and comic nature of the situation, and in The Last Action Hero (1993) Arnold Schwarzenegger exhibits his comic talents as he participates in a spoof of the action heroes he has played. In Batman and Robin (1997), he was Mr. Freeze, a comic-book villain in one of the least successful of the Batman films. For his efforts, he was nominated for a Golden Raspberry award as Worst Supporting Actor. But Arnold Schwarzenegger came back with End of Days (1999), an apocalyptic thriller that did well at the box office but failed to impress the critics.
This was followed by The Sixth Day (2000), another science-fiction thriller that recalled Total Recall totally, advancing the star's amusing potential for selfdeprecating deadpan drollery, as when his character says, "I might be back." He was back a year later in Collateral Damage. Arnold Schwarzenegger starred in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). Arnold Schwarzenegger, an active conservative Republican, married a member of the liberal Democratic Kennedy clan in 1986, broadcast journalist Maria Shriver, and has political ambitions - as proven by his victorious run for governor of California in the state's controversial 2003 recall election.
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1. Abbot and Costello were very popular during the sound era
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