Arnold Schwarzenegger was born June 30, 1947 in a small town in Austria. His father was a police chief and former Nazi stormtrooper. He was a strict father and favored his two eldest sons over Arnold.
In his middle teenage years Arnold developed a passion for bodybuilding. When he was 18 he competed in his first bodybuilding competition. The competition was the junior division of Mr. Europe and Arnold won first place. Arnold continued to weight train and build his muscles until he won virtually every bodybuilding competition there is. In fact, he is considered the most important figure in the history of bodybuilding.
In 1968 Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to the United States with very little money and even less English speaking ability. He very much wanted to become an actor, but his long last name, huge muscles, and poor English made this a difficult career move. He eventually got his first role as the title character in Hercules in New York. Because of his unusual and long last name he was credited as Arnold Strong, not Schwarzenegger.
Arnold's breakthrough role was another title character. This in the film Conan the Barbarian. He went on to star in many more big budget comedy and action movies including, The Terminator, The Predator, Twins, Total Recall, Terminator 2, True Lies and Terminator 3.
Then in 2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected the governor of California. His term ends in early 2007 and he has stated that he will seek a second term and run for re-election. Combining the word "terminator" with the word "governor", Arnold has earned his new nickname: "The Governator".
