When you're old and grey and you look back on your life and think about what you have done and the things that you achieved are you gonna say I have reached the highest level of success in my life or are you gonna say I should have done this and changed that. If you are Arnold Schwarzenegger, you would think about your success. He is famous all around the world because of the 3 main careers in his life, bodybuilding, acting, and politics and business. You know him with a strong accent and many one-liners in his movies such as "ill be back" "take my hand" "get to the chopper" hasta la vista baby" But how did he become the man that we know him as today? My case study of Arnold Schwarzenegger is from reading one of the books he wrote and countless numbers of weightlifting publications and other magazines, also by many of his movies. On June 30th 1947, Arnold was born in the small village of Graz, Austria. His father was a local police officer and did not make much money, so the Schwarzeneggers were very poor. When Arnold and his brother began playing team sports, their father pushed them to work harder and become better athletes. When he was 13, Arnold started becoming fascinated with bodybuilding and the physiques that those athletes could attain. He told his parents that he wanted to be the best built man in the world.So when he turned 14 years old, he started a weight training regiment. He liked the fact that it was an individual sport and if the results were good or bad it was because of only his hard work or lack of. By age 15 he had developed a very impressive physique which astounded the former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, whom Arnold met at a gym. Marnul realized that Arnold had great potential in the sport of bodybuilding so he asked him to be his training partner. He began competitive bodybuilding at age 17, had to mandatorily join the army when he was 18 and was thrown in jail for being AWOL because he left his post to go compete and win the Mr. Europe Junior. After 7 days he was released from prison and was reassigned to be a professional bodybuilding and spend the rest of his time in the army preparing for competitions. When he got out of the army it seemed as if nothing could slow him down. He stopped competing in the amateur division and stepped up to the professional division and won the Best Built man in Europe contest at 19 years old. He entered many contest and won such as 5 mr. universe titles and 1 mr world title. He than prepared for the grand daddy of all bodybuilding contest, the 1970 Mr. Olympia. Arnold went toe to toe with the reigning mr Olympia Sergio Oliva and at age 23 won the contest and achieved his goal of being the best built man in the world. He continued to enter and with the mr. Olympia a total of seven times throughout his career and that made him very famous worldwide. Because of his size and fame in bodybuilding, he landed an acting role in the film Hercules in New York. His voice had to be dubbed over because producers said that he was incomprehensible because of that thick accent. That did not set Arnold back, it only made him have the new goal of being the best actor in the world and gave him the realization that if he wanted to achieve that goal he would have to work on his speaking and acting skills with the same intensity that he had when working on his muscles. He got help from voice trainers and acting teachers and landed a role in "Stay hungry" with jeff bridges. His hard work paid off and he won a golden globe award for best newcomer in 1976. Soon after he won his 6th mr. Olympia title, he starred in the movie Pumping Iron, which was adored by critics. It is basically a bodybuilding documentary and is very interesting and kinda funny because you get to see the real Arnold and see him do and say a few things that you wouldn't expect. His first big hit as the lead role came when he played in Conan the Barbarian. Soon after the movies release, he was in high demand for lead roles in Action adventure type movies. He played the hero and sometimes the villain and was very generously paid for those rolls. Commando, the running man, total recall, true lies, eraser, batman and robin, the predator, and his most famous roll in terminator, T2, and T3 were all big hit movies because of him. The death toll in his movies is 466 not including T2 and t3. He liked his roles in these types of movies yet also wanted to try his luck in comedy/action movies such as Twins and kindergarden cop. Six of the movies that he starred in grossed 100 million dollars in the box office with his comedic role in twins being the highest money maker of them all. He achieved his goal and became one the the worlds top actors, and the highest paid actor in history. Despite his goal, he was a very smart capitalist and built a business empire. Before he ever made a film, when he was 21 and moved to America, he quickly bought many office complexes and apartment buildings to make money. He took business courses at night during his bodybuilding and acting career and eventually earned a degree from the University of Wisconsin in business and fitness. He currently owns shopping malls, a 747 that he leases to an airline, and a large portion of Santa Monica real estate. Arnold was what many would call the American dream when he was appointed by President Bush to chair the President's Council on Physical Fitness, traveling to schools throughout the country to check on their physical education programs and at times finding none existed. He reached out to the kids and steered them away from drugs and towards a healthy lifestyle with a heavy emphasis on physical fitness. Throughout Arnolds business ventures, he took a strong interest in politics and began making connections with politicians because of that and his fame. He wanted to give back to the state of California which had given him so much and so many opportunities. For a few years, he contemplated running for the position of governor of California and with the approval of his wife, Maria Shriver, he announced on August 7th 2003 with host Jay Leno that he was running for governor. He vigorously campaigned and beat Grey Davis on October 7th. He can not become the President of the U.S. because he was not born here, so he once again reached the highest possible level in his career. Arnold is like a modern day Ronald Reagan in being an actor who became the Governor of California. He grew up in poverty, yet through perseverance, hard work, and dedication, Arnold Schwarzenegger has lived the American dream. He's world famous from his bodybuilding, acting, and business and political career and had made hundreds of millions of dollars throughout his lifetime. His hard work paid off and he has held the highest positions available in his careers.
1240 wds