Arnold Schwarzenegger

Once the world's leading bodybuilder, Arnold Schwarzenegger went on to become one of Hollywood's biggest stars and then the governor of California from 2003-2011. Nicknamed "The Austrian Oak," Arnold Schwarzenegger started pumping iron when he was a teenager and in 1965 won the Mr. Europe Junior title. He went on to win five Mr. Universe titles (both amateur and professional) and was named Mr. Olympia seven times (1970-75 and 1980). Always ambitious, he landed a few small movie roles before appearing in the hit documentary Pumping Iron (1977). He played a bodybuilder in the movie Stay Hungry (1976, with Sally Field), and his natural charisma led to more movies and recognition. Once he played the oiled-up title hero in Conan The Barbarian (1982), Arnold Schwarzenegger was suddenly a movie star. He had another big hit in 1984, starring as a killer robot in James Cameron's The Terminator. Throughout the 1980s he was a top box office draw, mostly appearing in action films, but also adding comedy to his repertoire. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) was even more successful than the first movie, and Arnold Schwarzenegger became one of the highest paid actors in show business. During the 1990s, Schwarzenegger continued to make big-budget thrillers and earned a reputation for being a crack businessman and a conservative Republican. He reprised the Terminator role in 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. In August 2003, Schwarzenegger announced on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that he would run for governor of California in a special October recall election. He won the recall on October 7, 2003, replacing Gray Davis as governor. He was re-elected to a new term in 2006. Term limits prevented him from running again, and he was succeeded as governor by Jerry Brown in 2011. Since leaving office, Schwarzenegger has returned to Hollywood as an elder action statesman, appearing in potboilers like Escape Plan (2013) and The Expendables (2010), The Expendables 2 (2012) and The Expendables 3 (2014). He also lent his image to a long-running ad campaign for the online war game Mobile Strike.