Donna Saslove And Simon Lugassy - JO LEE Magazine

FEATURE
The Austrian-American Arnold
By Adriana Moelencamp
Beverley Hills – California
The easiest way to evaluate the
achievement of the Austrian-
American Arnold Shwarzenegger,
the son of a Styrian police chief
who went on to become the world’s
movie star aristocrat and Governor of
California, is to understand the man.
It might seem a little strange that
he announced his candidacy for
the Governor of California on The
Tonight Show, but when you’re
Arnold Schwarzenegger, you can
pretty much do whatever you want.
Two months after his August 2003
visit to Jay Leno’s talk show, Arnold
Schwarzenegger was elected as Gray
Davis’ replacement in the recall
elections, earning nearly 3.4 million
votes.
Born on July 30, 1947, in Graz,
Austria, Arnold Schwarzenegger
was raised with strict rules and
morals instilled by his parents. His
childhood was a very difficult one,
and proved to be the building block
for his character today. And so his
destiny began and a legend was born.
Mr. Schwarzenegger began weighttraining
at 15. He was awarded the
title of Mr. Universe at age 20, and
went on to win the Mr. Olympia
contest a total of seven times,
realizing his dream of becoming the
“best-built man in the world”.
Mr. Schwarzenegger has remained
a prominent face in the sport
of bodybuilding long after his
retirement, writing several books and
numerous articles on the sport.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first role in
a motion picture was for Hercules
Goes to New York in 1970, landing
him an appearance on the The Merv
Griffin Show.
A short-lived venture into show
business led him to start a
construction company with his
bodybuilder friend Franco Columbu.
The profits were going to fund a
mail-order business of fitness material
such as books and cassettes. Driven
by his passion to be taken seriously
and to be wealthy, he obtained a
correspondence degree in business
and international economics from
the University of Wisconsin. His
constant inflow of money began
and allowed him to live the life
of a superstar even before his
bodybuilding documentary Pumping
Iron was released in 1977.
Arnold Schwarzenegger won a
Golden Globe for Best New Actor
in the 1976 movie Stay Hungry.
His acting career didn’t take off,
however, until he obtained the lead
role in Conan the Barbarian in
1982. But his most memorable and
career-launching role came with The
Terminator in 1984, directed by
James Cameron. His most recent
appearance was in Sylvester Stallone’s
2010 The Expendables, where he
made a cameo appearance alongside
Stallone and Bruce Willis.
It was during his acting career
that he was referred to as Arnie,
his bodybuilding days found him
nicknamed the Styrian Oak, then
President George H.W. Bush
nicknamed him the Austrian
Oakand. More recently, he was
dubbed Governator – a portmanteau
of Governor and Terminator.
Mr. Schwarzenegger’s personal life
also became a success. After dating
Maria Shriver for eight years, they
were finally married in 1986, with
Maria having now brought an avid
Republican to the forefront. But in
recent years, many commentators
have seen Mr. Schwarzenegger as
moving away from the right and
towards the center of the political
spectrum.
In January 2011, the dual
Austrian/US citizen Arnold Alois
Schwarzenegger, the 38th governor
of the most populous state in the
United States, retired from his 2nd
term as governor, and continues on
the wings of “salesman-in-chief”.
JL
Jo Lee Power 2011 57