Today, our focus is entirely on just one celebrity. It has one of the best known names in the world, although people usually don’t know how to write it. We are talking, of course, about the Terminator, a man who arrived in the United States with a dream in his head and a life full of rejection. None of the difficulties in life were stronger than Arnold, his dreams and determination. Get to know the incredible life story of Arnold Schwarzenegger here and now!

THE BEGINNING OF YOUR LIFE

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in Austria on July 30, 1947, and today he is 73 years old. When Arnold was born, he experienced a reality in Austria that was imminently out of World War II, which was a period of great political, social and economic problems in the region close to Germany. Arnold started his life in a country with few social conditions of ascension, but, as we know, he did not let these limitations stop him. Let’s get to know his story.

HIS ORIGINS

Arnold was the son of Gustav Schwarzenegger and Aurelia Jadrny, a couple who started their relationship in 1945, two years before Arnold was born. The couple had no less than seven children. When they got married, Gustav was 38 years old and Aurelia was 23 years old, and was a widow with a son, named Meinhard, who will be important to Arnold’s story in the decades to come. Arnold’s family was large, but that didn’t mean happiness.

A LARGE FAMILY

As has already been said, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s family was very large, but that did not mean that the family was happy. It turns out that Arnold nowadays doesn’t talk much about his childhood and his life with his parents and siblings. In fact, according to his ex-wives and ex-girlfriends, he was never very open to talking about it with people, whether they were close to him or complete strangers. But why was Arnold always so secretive about his family?

HOWEVER, DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD

According to Arnold himself, the upbringing he and his brothers had was very strict. Which means that he and his brothers were raised from a very strict and almost military education, since Arnold’s father was a police chief in the city where they lived. Arnold himself said that his father’s dream was for him to become a policeman too, but Arnold never wanted to. He himself says that the issue of strict upbringing was positive for his children.

FEELING REJECTED

The problem was not really in the upbringing that Arnold’s parents gave him, but in the way they treated him. According to Arnold he told his ex-wife, the parents liked their older brother, Meinhard, much better than him. He says that he was beaten a lot, had his hair pulled hard and suffered from belt beatings daily, while his older brother did nothing to help or support him. Arnold’s childhood was not really easy.

SUFFERING AS HE GROWS

The violence that Arnold Schwarzenegger experienced in his childhood is probably the reason why he does not like to talk about his life before immigrating to the United States. According to him, the family still suffered from the lack of money, so the problems just got worse every day for him. He told a newspaper that one of the happiest days of his childhood was when the family had money to buy their first refrigerator.

CHILDHOOD ENDED

 

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s childhood was ending and his independence was beginning to be born. Arnold was a very athletic boy, and people at his school noticed that. He felt that his place was not there in that broken country beside that troubled family. He started to create his awareness that his place was a place that he needed to conquer in the world, and then the story began of dreams of a man who needed the strength to realize them.

AND ADOLESCENCE BEGAN

In his early teens, Arnold’s body started to grow and he was, as he said, a slim young man. Despite not having the muscles we were used to seeing, Arnold had great physical strength and stamina worthy of a true athlete. Arnold started playing sports at school after a call from his coach, who said he had the potential to play football. Arnold’s history in sport began, contrary to what many people think, outside the academy.

A SPORTSMAN

He had great potential for playing football, and his coach wanted to get the best performance out of him. For this reason, Arnold trained daily to achieve the best possible body for the games. He says that his journey in the sport started at the age of 14 with a plan to grow and get stronger and stronger. And it was when he started going to the gym that he discovered his true passion.

DISCOVERING A PASSION

Upon entering the academy, at the age of 15, Arnold Schwarzenegger discovered that life on the football fields was not his real passion. He really wanted to work out, and started training his mind to be able to control his body. A smart boy, Arnold liked to study and it was at this age that he learned that no dream is impossible if he trained his mind to have total dedication, without giving up. With a strong mind, the body could handle any routine or load.

TWO YEARS LATER, THE STORY BEGAN

At the age of 17, Arnold met a new trainer in Austria who introduced him to a new world of fitness, the world of bodybuilding. He started to train hard and daily to get the perfect body to compete in weightlifting and muscle exposure tournaments. Arnold was now committed to making his first dream come true, that of being the strongest man in the entire world. Thus was born the man we know.

THE BIRTH OF A LEGEND

The legend Arnold Schwarzenegger was now being born and gaining more and more popularity in his small hometown in Austria. He did not want, however, to be stuck in that place for much longer, so he had plans to move to another location. In the meantime, Arnold was training and increasing the size of his muscles. He reached a level where signing up for tournaments was no longer something he could avoid.

STANDING OUT ON A BRANCH

It was time to start competing. Arnold Schwarzenegger was already standing out for some years in the bodybuilding business and his coaches wanted to see him in world-class competitions. He had inspired young people and adults to train in Austria for some time when he decided it was time to shine elsewhere. Thus, in 1968, Arnold made the difficult decision to leave Austria and immigrate to the United States of America.

USA

The man who was to become one of the most famous stars of pop culture arrived in the United States as a complete stranger, who did not speak English very well and stood out for having great muscles. He went to the country with the dream of winning the biggest bodybuilding contest in the world, Mr. Olympia. He had already participated in some weightlifting contests in Austria, and won some of them. With a respectable resume, it was time to compete.

WORK CONTINUES AT THE GYM

Work couldn’t stop and Arnold Schwarnezegger needed to train for hours each day to keep his muscles big in order to impress Mr. Olympia’s judges. His dedication was so great that a documentary was made following the routine of the young competitor in his daily gym hours. At his peak, Arnold says he was 1.87m tall and had 107 kg of body weight. Arnold’s muscles were truly giant.

THE PURPOSE WAS ONLY ONE

The rebel who left his family, a young man just out of compulsory military service, a man with huge muscles who had already participated in some major physical strength contests. Arnold already had a lot of story to tell and he wasn’t even 30 yet. When he participated in his first Mr. Olympia, in 1969, Arnold ended up in second place, losing to the legend of bodybuilding Sergio Oliva. But he never gives up. He was going to come back.

THE BEST OF THE WORLD

In the year 1970, Arnold won his first Mr. Olympia, and now the world knew his name because of the size of his muscles. He said that missing a day at the gym made him sick, it was almost an addiction. At the same time, in 1971 and 1972, his father and his older brother, Meinhard, died. Arnold’s wife at the time, Barbara Baker, said he did not want to go to funerals and showed no emotions when he learned of the deaths.

ILLEGAL SUBSTANCES?

Arnold did something for his brother, he brought Meinhard’s son, Patrick, to the United States and took care of him, providing education and supporting the boy in America. At the same time, Arnold admitted that he even used anabolic substances to help him gain more muscle. In fact, at that time steroids were allowed by law, so he was not committing any crime. He was a determined man wanting to take care of his family and reality.

THE DREAM CONTINUES, BUT OUTSIDE THE ACADEMY

After a long career as a successful bodybuilder, Arnold had another dream. He wanted to go to the cinema, he wanted to act and be successful as a muscular actor. At that time, the movie heartthrobs were Marlon Brando and James Dean, men who had no defined muscles. The idea of ​​a heartthrob at that time was thin and charming men, two things that Arnold was not, since he was a foreigner with giant muscles. People were afraid of how he looked.

CINEMA, ARNOLD?

Arnold’s willingness to become an actor is something that he comments until today as not being easy. At that time, entering the cinema business was much more difficult than nowadays, and Arnold’s physical difficulties in adapting himself in the industry were something that made his dream even more distant from reality. But he was committed to having great success in that dream, and as we know, he came to success. But it was not easy.

REJECTION AND DIFFICULTIES

Arnold’s rejection in the cinema was also allied with the difficulties faced in Arnold’s life on a personal level. His wife, Barbara Baker, at the time, was a teacher who lived a simple life, but Arnold said that she had no interest in a life of success and luxury, and he had no interest in a mediocre life. This meant that Arnold had goals in his life that could not be diminished even by love.

PROBLEMS WITH SPEECH

Arnold landed some small roles in films and episodes in television series, but there was a problem with his speech that caused some of his early films to be even dubbed by American actors. Arnold was a foreigner, and his English was not perfect. Movies from Arnold’s early 70s career are still available today for download, but most of them just look like Arnold, without his voice.

FEW OPPORTUNITIES?

One of the films that brought Arnold much popularity in the late 1970s was Conan the Barbarian, in which he played the protagonist, a man with muscles who fought monsters and dictatorial rulers in a medieval reality full of magic. He was getting more and more famous and his vision in the cinema was changing from a strange muscled immigrant to a different-looking heartthrob on the rise. A film in the 1980s would change everything.

THE BIRTH OF THE EXTERMINATOR

In 1984, the movie Terminator was released, a futuristic science fiction with time travel, action, drama and a plot twist that would change the history of cinema. But at the center of this story was the villainous Terminator, a robot killer who came from the future to kill a woman. Arnold played this Terminator, and despite having few lines, the actor’s physical presence in the film brought an incredible sense of danger and a sense of fear.

THE STRONGEST ACTOR IN THE WORLD

He established himself as one of the greatest villains of the 1980s, alongside Darth Vader, from the Star Wars saga, and John Kreese, from the Karate Kid saga. To this day, people remember Arnold’s iconic lines, like “I’m Going Back”, one of his most famous Terminator movies. He was now known worldwide as one of the strongest men in the world, and was definitely the most muscular actor in cinema at that time. He fulfilled his dream!

A GREAT CAREER IN CINEMA

During the 1990s, Arnold acted in the sequel to Terminator, children’s films alongside Danny DeVito and also alone, superhero films such as Batman and Robin, and more. Arnold was a true star and increasingly won over audiences with his physical presence in his films. The actor’s charisma outside the big screen was also gaining more and more fans, and he had a plan for his life and for the future that was outside the cinema. What did Arnold want?

AN EXCITING LIFE STORY

Impossible dreams, but with determination, strength and persistence, were conquered and realized. An immigrant from a poor family and a violent childhood became one of the greatest actors in the world, a highly successful politician, a prominent businessman and also a man of great intelligence. Arnold is an inspiration for everyone in the world, but especially for those who dream. No dream is impossible for those who believe in themselves. This is the legacy of Arnold Schwarzenegger.