48 Fun Facts About Arnold Schwarzenegger

Which of Hollywood's famous Chrises became Schwarzenegger's son-in-law in 2019?

Chris Pratt began dating Katherine, the eldest of Arnold's children, in 2018 after her mother, Maria Shriver, introduced them, and the couple married the following June.

Which Predator co-star of Schwarzenegger's also went on to be elected governor of a US state?

Jesse Ventura, the former wrestler among Arnold's commandos, ran for governor of Minnesota in 1998 as a Reform Party outsider, was written off as a novelty candidate and beat both major parties.

What was Schwarzenegger's nickname during his bodybuilding days?

The Austrian Oak was his billing on the bodybuilding circuit, and he carried the image into Hollywood by naming his film production company Oak Productions.

At 20, Schwarzenegger became the youngest ever winner of which bodybuilding title?

Mr. Universe: he called the title his 'ticket to America', and so it proved when the promoter Joe Weider brought him to California in 1968.

Which HBO series cast Schwarzenegger's son Patrick as a swaggering eldest son in its third season in 2025?

The White Lotus: when people said he owed the part to his famous parents, Patrick answered that the surname could be a burden, one he had at times wished away and had once thought of swapping for an alias.

What landed Schwarzenegger in military prison for a week in 1965?

Went AWOL to enter a bodybuilding contest: he slipped away from basic training, won Junior Mr. Europe and served his week, saying the contest 'meant so much to me' that he never weighed the consequences.

Which 1977 documentary about the Mr. Olympia contest made Schwarzenegger a star beyond bodybuilding?

Pumping Iron follows his bid for a sixth straight Mr. Olympia title in 1975, which he planned as his farewell, against a young challenger named Lou Ferrigno.

Under what stage name was Schwarzenegger credited in his 1970 debut Hercules in New York?

He was billed as Arnold Strong in Hercules in New York; his accent was so thick that his lines were dubbed, and agents had told him his real name was too long.

For which 1976 film did Schwarzenegger win a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year?

Stay Hungry, in which he played a bodybuilder opposite Jeff Bridges and Sally Field, won him a newcomer's Golden Globe although it was not his debut: he had played Hercules six years earlier.

Which TV superhero role did Schwarzenegger reportedly lose for being too short?

The Incredible Hulk's producer says he turned Arnold down as not tall enough; the part went first to the towering Richard Kiel and then to Lou Ferrigno, Arnold's old bodybuilding rival.

Which 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic was Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film?

Conan the Barbarian, from a script co-written by Oliver Stone, finally gave the heavily accented bodybuilder a part in which his looks and voice were assets rather than problems.

Who directed The Terminator, the 1984 film that gave Schwarzenegger his signature role?

James Cameron built the film on a nightmare he had while ill in Rome, about a killer machine from the future, and shot it for about $6.4 million; it took $78 million.

In The Terminator, which artificial intelligence sends the cyborg back in time to kill Sarah Connor?

Skynet, a defence network turned against its makers, is losing its war with the human resistance in 2029, so it sends an assassin to 1984 to kill the mother of the rebels' future leader.

John Connor teaches the Terminator which catchphrase?

'Hasta la vista, baby': in Terminator 2, John coaches the machine to stop saying 'affirmative' and talk like people do, using a sign-off the film's two writers said to each other at the end of their phone calls.

What is the name of Schwarzenegger's character, the rescue team leader, in Predator?

Dutch was meant to face an agile, stealthy alien played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Van Damme left the film and the redesigned creature went to the far taller Kevin Peter Hall.

What is the name of the retired Special Forces colonel Schwarzenegger plays in Commando?

John Matrix is dragged out of retirement when mercenaries kidnap his daughter Jenny; their leader, Bennett, is a soldier Matrix once threw out of his own unit for excessive violence.

Which 1990 sci-fi film, based on a Philip K. Dick story, casts Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid?

Total Recall sat in development for sixteen years, through forty script drafts and seven directors, until Schwarzenegger, once dismissed as wrong for the lead, got Carolco to buy it for him.

Which director made all three of Schwarzenegger's comedies Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior?

Ivan Reitman made all three; for Kindergarten Cop, comic and romantic leads such as Bill Murray and Patrick Swayze were considered before the part went to an action star.

How was Schwarzenegger paid for Twins, the 1988 comedy with Danny DeVito?

No salary, but a share of the profits: Universal saw a muscleman in a broad comedy as a risk, so he, Danny DeVito and the director waived their fees, and the film grossed over $200 million.

In Kindergarten Cop, John Kimble goes undercover as a teacher in Astoria, the Goonies town, in which state?

Oregon: the crew filmed in the real Astoria, where John Jacob Astor Elementary School played the kindergarten, so the harbour town The Goonies made famous in 1985 got a second cult film.

Which self-aware 1993 Schwarzenegger blockbuster flopped after opening a week after Jurassic Park?

Last Action Hero drops a boy with a magic ticket into the film world of Arnold's cop Jack Slater; opening behind Jurassic Park, it made $50 million in the US against an $85 million budget.

Which supervillain did Schwarzenegger play in 1997's Batman & Robin?

Mr. Freeze: he plays Victor Fries, a scientist who steals diamonds to power his freezing suit while he hunts for a cure for his terminally ill, cryogenically frozen wife.

Which fellow 1980s action star was Schwarzenegger's famous rival before they invested together in Planet Hollywood?

Sylvester Stallone went from rival to colleague: Arnold made a cameo in his film The Expendables in 2010, and three years later the pair finally co-starred, in Escape Plan.

On which late-night show did Schwarzenegger announce his 2003 California governor run?

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: he announced his run there on 6 August 2003, never having held public office, and two months later won the recall ballot with 48.6 percent of the vote.

Which governor did Schwarzenegger replace after the 2003 California recall election?

Gray Davis, blamed by many voters for the electricity crisis and its rolling blackouts, became only the second governor in US history to be recalled; 55.4 percent voted to remove him.

What nickname did Schwarzenegger acquire as governor of California?

The Governator fused his office with his Terminator role; he later co-developed a comic and cartoon character of that name with Stan Lee, but the project was halted in 2011.

What SNL-derived insult did Governor Schwarzenegger aim at Democratic state politicians?

'Girlie men' was the catchphrase of Hans and Franz, the SNL musclemen who parodied him; he turned it on Democrats in a budget fight early in his first term, telling them to 'fix the budget'.

Why is Schwarzenegger barred from running for President of the United States?

He is not a natural-born citizen: born in Austria, he was naturalised in 1983, and a proposed constitutional change to lift the bar, nicknamed the 'Arnold Amendment', has never passed.

Which president made Schwarzenegger fitness council chairman, dubbing him 'Conan the Republican'?

George H. W. Bush named him chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, a post he held from 1990 to 1993 after campaigning for Bush in 1988.

Maria Shriver, whom Schwarzenegger married in 1986, is the niece of which US president?

Her mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver was John F. Kennedy's sister and founded the Special Olympics; the couple met at the Robert F. Kennedy tennis tournament in 1977.

Which massive civilian 4x4 did Schwarzenegger lobby its maker to build from an army vehicle?

The Hummer H1: he pressed the Humvee's maker for a road-legal version and, when it went on sale in 1992, bought the first ones off the line.

In Jingle All the Way, which sold-out action figure is Schwarzenegger's character desperate to buy his son?

Turbo Man: the story was inspired by real Christmas scrambles for sold-out toys such as Cabbage Patch Kids, which in the 1980s ended in frantic searches and even fights among shoppers.

What was the title of Schwarzenegger's 2023 book of life advice?

Be Useful, subtitled Seven Tools for Life, takes its title from the order his father kept giving him as a boy; he says the phrase stuck with him and has driven him ever since.

Where did Schwarzenegger earn his bachelor's degree, mostly by correspondence?

University of Wisconsin–Superior: after collecting credits at Santa Monica College and UCLA, he enrolled as a distance student and flew in only to meet his professors and sit final exams.

Which reality series did Schwarzenegger front for a single season in early 2017?

The New Celebrity Apprentice: taking over from Donald Trump, he fired contestants with 'you're terminated', but the ratings stumbled and within months he announced he would not be back.

Which 2023 Netflix action comedy gave Schwarzenegger his first lead in a scripted series?

In FUBAR he plays Luke Brunner, a CIA veteran who discovers his daughter is also an agent; the series debuted at number one on Netflix in May 2023.

What heart defect was Schwarzenegger born with, leading to major surgery in 1997 and again in 2018?

Born with a bicuspid aortic valve, he chose a valve made from his own tissue over a mechanical one in 1997, knowing more surgery would follow; the 2018 follow-up, planned as a catheter procedure, became emergency open-heart surgery.

To which German city did Schwarzenegger move in 1966 to work at a gym before he left for America?

Munich: he left his home village at 19 to work at Rolf Putziger's gym there and went to business school on the side, staying two years before America called.

At which legendary Venice, California gym did Schwarzenegger train under Joe Weider from 1968?

Weider brought him to Gold's Gym in Venice, where he arrived at 21 speaking little English; training partner Ric Drasin drew the gym's famous weightlifter logo in 1973.

Who played Schwarzenegger's wife Helen in the 1994 film True Lies?

Jamie Lee Curtis played Helen, who thinks her husband is a dull salesman until his spy work drags her in; she ends up plucked from a runaway limousine by helicopter, and the part won her a Golden Globe.

What did Schwarzenegger say he did as a teenager when the gym was closed at weekends?

Broke in to train anyway: 'It would make me sick to miss a workout,' he said, adding that he could not have looked at himself in the mirror the next morning.

What did Schwarzenegger decline to accept during his time as governor of California?

His $175,000 annual salary: he could afford to waive it, having made his first million before he was a film star by putting his contest winnings into property and a mail-order business.

Schwarzenegger grew up in the village of Thal, on the edge of which Austrian city?

Graz: Thal lies about three kilometres outside Austria's second city, and the house he grew up in, without plumbing or a telephone, reopened in 2011 as the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum.

Schwarzenegger has a ski run named after him at Sun Valley, his long-time winter retreat, in which state?

Idaho: the family kept a holiday home at Sun Valley, and it was there, two days before Christmas 2006, that the sitting governor tripped over a ski pole and broke his thigh bone.

With which fellow bodybuilder did Schwarzenegger start a bricklaying business soon after arriving in California?

Franco Columbu, his Sardinian training partner: their stipend from Joe Weider was too small to live on, so they founded European Brick Works, and the 1971 San Fernando earthquake brought a rush of work.

Which Republican did Schwarzenegger endorse in the party's 2016 presidential primaries?

John Kasich got his endorsement, and that October he announced that, for the first time since becoming a citizen in 1983, he would not vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Which 2006 California law signed by Governor Schwarzenegger created the nation's first cap on greenhouse gases?

The Global Warming Solutions Act bound California to cut its emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020, a deal a Republican governor struck with the Democrats who wrote the bill.

Which 2007 animated film shows Arnold Schwarzenegger as President of the United States?

The Simpsons Movie: President Schwarzenegger picks a plan at random and seals Springfield under a dome; he is voiced by Harry Shearer and drawn from Rainier Wolfcastle, the show's long-running Arnold parody.