Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria in 1947.
Interestingly his middle name “Alois” in German means “Famous warrior”.
Arnold began serious weight training as a teenager.
He won the Junior Mr. Europe competition in 1965, and in 1966 he won the title of Mr. Europe, at events held in Germany.
In 1967 and 1968 he won the Mr. Universe title as an amateur and professional respectively, at events held in London, and was the youngest person ever to win the title at age 20. He then went on to win Mr. Universe as a professional another two times.
He followed it up by winning the Mr. Olympia contest seven times from 1970 to 1975, and then again in 1980 in Sydney, Australia.
Arnold emigrated to America in 1968 with his sights set on Hollywood.
Schwarzenegger initiated his movie career with Hercules in New York (1970), the same year as his first Mr. Olympia win.
The Greek Gods and Hercules would’ve noticed him by now, that’s for sure. Whether he actually contains the spirit of Hercules for real is also debatable. Could he be the real Hercules? This type of deception wouldn’t surprise me. Win Mr. Olympia, fail in a Hercules movie and then become a superstar.
Hercules in New York turned out to be a bit of a flop, especially if you see it now. In that movie he went by the pseudonym Arnold Strong. The movie has dated very badly and comes across as very amateurish. The thing is, it led onto much greater things.
His movie career turned out to be awesome. At the start he had trouble because of his unusual accent, long last ethnic name and his muscly body type. They even dubbed him.
The Greek Gods weren’t going to allow him to end his film career on such a low with his pathetic portrayal of Hercules. Accent or not they had to provide assistance. After all he did win Mr. Olympia. The honour of Hercules and Mount Olympus was at stake. Then again Arnold Schwarzenegger may have deliberately mocked Hercules and the Olympians. Most of us will never know.
From 1970 to 1980 he appeared in several other movies, and in 1977 the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognised his talent in Stay Hungry with a Golden Globe for New Male Star of the Year.
The few films he did make weren’t that groundbreaking as you can see.
The Long Goodbye (1973)
Stay Hungry (1976)
Pumping Iron (1977) – Documentary
The Villain (1979)
The Jayne Mansfield Story (1980)
His big breakthrough finally came with the smash hit sword and sorcery epic:
Conan the Barbarian (1982)
Note: The word Barbarian first originated from ancient Greece. To the Greek ear anyone not speaking their language babbled like “bar bar bar”. The funny thing is Arnold couldn’t make it as Hercules but he could as a Barbarian. This has got to be some kind of inside joke.
Arnold Schwarzenegger made it after twelve years (1970 – 1982) from his first Hercules appearance. That is like the Twelve Labours of Hercules, though instead of the twelve historical labours, it took him twelve years into the future to make it as a Barbarian.
From then on things started to skyrocket. After Conan, he made many more great movies.
In this list you’ll find a few absolute classics. I’ve included the IMDb voter rating as of 17/05/17 to help you pinpoint the better ones.
Conan the Destroyer (1984) ——————— 5.8/10 IMDb rating – with 64,790 votes
The Terminator (1984) —————————— 8/10 IMDb rating – with 640,063 votes
Red Sonja (1985) ———————————— 5/10 IMDb rating – with 31,789 votes
Commando (1985) ——————————— 6.7/10 IMDb rating – with 118,527 votes
Raw Deal (1986) ———————————— 5.5/10 IMDb rating – with 24,249 votes
Predator (1987) ———————————— 7.8/10 IMDb rating – with 305,822 votes
The Running Man (1987) ———————— 6.6/10 IMDb rating – with 117,971 votes
Red Heat (1988) ———————————— 6/10 IMDb rating – with 62,502 votes
Twins (1988) —————————————— 6/10 IMDb rating – with 92,132 votes
Total Recall (1990) ——————————— 7.5/10 IMDb rating – with 252,000 votes
Kindergarten Cop (1990) ————————— 6/10 IMDb rating – with 113,005 votes
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) ——— 8.5/10 IMDb rating – with 792,477 votes
Last Action Hero (1993) ————————— 6.2/10 IMDb rating – with 111,843 votes
True Lies (1994) ———————————— 7.2/10 IMDb rating – with 199,102 votes
Junior (1994) ————————————— 4.5/10 IMDb rating – with 55,891 votes
Eraser (1996) ————————————— 6.1/10 IMDb rating – with 88,084 votes
Jingle all the Way (1996) ———————— 5.5/10 IMDb rating – with 73,159 votes
Batman and Robin (1997) ———————— 3.7/10 IMDb rating – with 198,151 votes
End of Days (1999) ——————————— 5.7/10 IMDb rating – with 92,664 votes
The 6th Day (2000) ——————————— 5.9/10 IMDb rating – with 103,201 votes
Collateral Damage (2002) ————————— 5.5/10 IMDb rating – with 63,675 votes
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) —— 6.4/10 IMDb rating – with 319,635 votes
Around the World in 80 Days (2004) ———— 5.8/10 IMDb rating – with 72,117 votes
The Expendables (2010). ————————— 6.5/10 IMDb rating – with 282,945 votes
The Expendables 2 (2012) ———————— 6.6/10 IMDb rating – with 257,096 votes
The Last Stand (2013) —————————— 6.4/10 IMDb rating – with 118,732 votes
Escape Plan (2013) ——————————— 6.7/10 IMDb rating – with 187,757 votes
Sabotage (2014) ———————————— 5.7/10 IMDb rating – with 49,998 votes
The Expendables 3 (2014) ———————— 6.1/10 IMDb rating – with 137,319 votes
Maggie (2015) ————————————— 5.6/10 IMDb rating – with 33,924 votes
Terminator Genisys (2015) ———————— 6.5/10 IMDb rating – with 204,958 votes
To top it off he also served as the Governor of California, from 2003 to 2010.
With amazing accomplishments like these, you just have to wonder how far his connections go with Hercules and the Greek Gods.
