Arnold Schwarzenegger Trivia
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48 free Arnold Schwarzenegger trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
44 free Arnold Schwarzenegger trivia questions with answers. Arnold Schwarzenegger has had three careers most people would settle for one of: seven-time Mr. Olympia, the biggest action star of the 1980s and 1990s, and two-term Governor of California. This quiz covers all three, plus the parts in between: the village of Thal, the week in Austrian military prison, the thick accent that got him dubbed in his first film, and the Hummer he talked a defence contractor into selling to civilians. Expect questions on Conan, The Terminator, Predator, Total Recall, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, True Lies and Junior; on Mr. Universe, Pumping Iron and the controversial 1980 comeback; on the recall election, the Kennedy in-laws and the Governator nickname; and on his books, heart surgeries and Netflix comeback. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Schwarzenegger and his films. The early questions are for casual fans; the later ones about his degree, his stage name and his stone-lifting title are for people who have read the autobiography.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which of Hollywood's famous Chrises became Schwarzenegger's son-in-law in 2019?
Chris Pratt
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.
Q 02Which Predator co-star of Schwarzenegger's also went on to be elected governor of a US state?
Jesse Ventura
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.
Q 03What was Schwarzenegger's nickname during his bodybuilding days?
The Austrian Oak
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.
Q 04At 20, Schwarzenegger became the youngest ever winner of which bodybuilding title?
Mr. Universe
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.
Q 05Which HBO series cast Schwarzenegger's son Patrick as a swaggering eldest son in its third season in 2025?
The White Lotus
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.
Q 06What landed Schwarzenegger in military prison for a week in 1965?
Went AWOL to enter a bodybuilding contest
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.
Q 07Which 1977 documentary about the Mr. Olympia contest made Schwarzenegger a star beyond bodybuilding?
Pumping Iron
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.
Q 08Under what stage name was Schwarzenegger credited in his 1970 debut Hercules in New York?
Arnold Strong
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.
Q 09For which 1976 film did Schwarzenegger win a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year?
Stay Hungry
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.
Q 10Which TV superhero role did Schwarzenegger reportedly lose for being too short?
The Incredible Hulk
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.
Q 11Which 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic was Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film?
Conan the Barbarian
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.
Q 12Who directed The Terminator, the 1984 film that gave Schwarzenegger his signature role?
James Cameron
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.
Q 13In The Terminator, which artificial intelligence sends the cyborg back in time to kill Sarah Connor?
Skynet
Q 21Which self-aware 1993 Schwarzenegger blockbuster flopped after opening a week after Jurassic Park?
Last Action Hero
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.
Q 22Which supervillain did Schwarzenegger play in 1997's Batman & Robin?
Mr. Freeze
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.
Q 23Which fellow 1980s action star was Schwarzenegger's famous rival before they invested together in Planet Hollywood?
Sylvester Stallone
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.
Q 14John Connor teaches the Terminator which catchphrase?
Hasta la vista, baby
'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.
Q 15What is the name of Schwarzenegger's character, the rescue team leader, in Predator?
Dutch
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.
Q 16What is the name of the retired Special Forces colonel Schwarzenegger plays in Commando?
John Matrix
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.
Q 17Which 1990 sci-fi film, based on a Philip K. Dick story, casts Schwarzenegger as Douglas Quaid?
Total Recall
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.
Q 18Which director made all three of Schwarzenegger's comedies Twins, Kindergarten Cop and Junior?
Ivan Reitman
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.
Q 19How was Schwarzenegger paid for Twins, the 1988 comedy with Danny DeVito?
No salary, but a share of the profits
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.
Q 20In Kindergarten Cop, John Kimble goes undercover as a teacher in Astoria, the Goonies town, in which state?
Oregon
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.
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.
Q 24On which late-night show did Schwarzenegger announce his 2003 California governor run?
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
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.
Q 25Which governor did Schwarzenegger replace after the 2003 California recall election?
Gray Davis
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.
Q 26What nickname did Schwarzenegger acquire as governor of California?
The Governator
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.
Q 27What SNL-derived insult did Governor Schwarzenegger aim at Democratic state politicians?
Girlie men
'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'.
Q 28Why is Schwarzenegger barred from running for President of the United States?
He is not a natural-born citizen
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.
Q 29Which president made Schwarzenegger fitness council chairman, dubbing him 'Conan the Republican'?
George H. W. Bush
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.
Q 30Maria Shriver, whom Schwarzenegger married in 1986, is the niece of which US president?
John F. Kennedy
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.