Arnold was born and raised in Thal, Austria, second son of Aurelia and Gustav Schwarzenegger. Sadly though it would not be the happiest of home lives for young Arnie as he was born into a very poor family and he states that one of the most momentous occasions of his childhood was when his family got their first ever refrigerator, it was that big of a deal at the time. Unfortunately poverty is not the only thing Arnold was subject to during his early years, he would also face regular abuse at the hands of his father. Gustav
(an Austrian police chief who voluntarily sided with the Nazis in WW2) Arnold’s father would continually abuse him for the simple fact that he believed Arnold was not his biological child and instead favoured Arnie’s older brother Meinhard. Although family relations would remain strained indefinitely, Arnold maintained a close relationship with his mother.
In sheer determination to gain his dad’s approval and love, Arnold would participate in various different sports, by no means at this point was he the shredded beast we know him as, and he would describe himself as the skinny athletic kid of the bunch. At about 14/15 when Arnold was playing Soccer with his local team, his coach took the team along to the Gym for some weight training. It was at this moment he gave up Soccer and began to peruse a career in pro bodybuilding. Of course as you can imagine Arnold’s parents had pretty different ideas for what they thought would be a suitable career path for their son, his dad wanted him to be a police officer, whilst his mother wanted him to go and study at trade school. Undeterred by this, Arnold continued his new found love for pumping iron (clever eh?) and would work out and do his thing day and night. He would even break into the gym on the weekends to workout when it was closed up, that was the extent of his dedication. Nothing would stop his routine and he has even stated that if he didn’t work out he just couldn’t face himself in the mirror.
When Arnold was 18 years of age he was drafted into the military as was mandatory back then, however this stood in the way of Arnie’s real ambition of becoming a pro body builder, so in turn he went awol to compete in a tournament. This though resulted in a week sentence in a military prison. Talk about suffering for you’re art. He would later though go on to achieve what he set out to do, and that was to be a somebody. He would go on to win the Mr Universe competition at just age 20 making him the youngest Mr Universe ever, before winning it again four more times during his career. Another tournament that would bring great success was Mr Olympia, a title he would win a staggering 7 times, his first win coming at age 23, again making him the youngest champion ever in that particular competition. He retired officially from bodybuilding in 1980 age 33.
So when Arnold had moved from his home country to seek fame and fortune, you may be surprised to know that his first venture in 1968 was a bricklaying business he formed with a dude named Franco Columbo another fellow bodybuilder who was dethroned by Arnie in the Mr Olympia competition. The business was a great success and did in fact flourish due to high rising demand in building materials at the time.
Still seeking fame and fortune Arnie would try his arm at acting and audition for roles in films, during this period he suffered a great deal of rejection and disappointment. He was told by various different producers and casting agencies that he would amount to nothing, saying that his accent was too thick, he had a long and confusing name and his body was just too big. This however would not stop him.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first film role would be as “Hercules” in “Hercules in New York, and was credited as Arnold Strong. He had only just recently learnt to speak English and the producers feared that audiences would not understand him, so when the film was made and in post production his voice was dubbed over by another actor. Lucky for you folks though you can now see the film as intended, minus the dub and plus the true Arnie voice! It’s a real hoot!
After his first film Arnold would revert back to using his real surname, this proved to be a master stroke and in no way held him back like he was told it would. During the 70s as his acting career was building steam he was cast in various supporting roles, the film though that really propelled Arnie was the Jeff Bridges movie “Stay Hungry” a story that followed the story of a character called Joe Santo who was training as a bodybuilder for the Mr Universe competition, so in essence Arnold Schwarzenegger is the real life Joe santo, what a perfect casting choice eh? For his role in this film Arnold would go onto win a golden globe. Later down the line he would be nominated again for his work in the film “Junior” not bad for someone who would amount to nothing according to others.
So having a handful of roles under his belt Arnie’s career would sky rocket higher with films such as Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, but it would be the role of the Terminator that would cement his place as a real superstar and arguably his greatest role. So after becoming an action powerhouse throughout the 80s and 90s and after acting in Hollywood for almost 3 decades, Arnold decided he wanted to try his hand at running the state of California and put himself forward in the elections. He would go on to serve as the 38th governor of California and won the vote massively with 1.3 million votes, and when he had won his re election he won it with an almost identical number of votes. He would serve from 2003-2011 and is the second only foreign born governor.
So for a dude who was from an early age told he would be nothing he really did prove them wrong. He is the embodiment of living the dream and always believing in yourself, he is now one of the most iconic and recognisable people on the planet and his films continue to be adored by young and old all over the world. All we can say Arnie is happy god damn birthday, you truly are a rad dude!
Extra Rad:
Directed Tales from the Crypt Season 2 Episode 2.
Duped Sylvester Stallone into taking the role in the film “Stop or my Mom will shoot” at the time the two would always be competing to land the same role in a film. So the story goes Arnold put the rumour out that he was interested in the role, upon hearing this Sylvester Stallone wants in on it and goes for the part. Stallone landed the part, but little did he know that it was all an elaborate hoax, Arnie stated he thought it would be a piece of shit! And oh how right you are my man!
In the documentary Pumping Iron you could arguably state that it was the first time he played the villain. As it’s not unknown that it was partly scripted and dramatised.
And that is only really dipping our toes into this one man’s legacy. He truly is a hero!
Well folks we hope you enjoyed that and maybe even learnt a thing or two, we will be back!!
-Otto.
Comments