25 Inspiring Facts about Arnold Schwarzenegger Very Few People Know

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1Arnold's birth

Arnold's birth

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947, in Austria. His father Gustav was an alcoholic police chief and member of the Nazi Party, who favored Arnold's brother over his less athletic younger son. Gustav is reported to have beaten and intimidated Arnold and, when he could, pitted his two boys against one another. He also ridiculed Schwarzenegger's early dreams of becoming a bodybuilder.


2. Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted that he had made up several stories in the movie Pumping Iron for attention because the producers told him that without drama it would be boring. One of the stories made up was the fact that he did not attend his father's funeral because of a bodybuilding competition that was going to happen in a couple of months. Arnold did actually attend his father's funeral and spoke to him shortly before he passed.


3. Arnold Schwarzenegger was so hell-bent on working out as a youngster that he broke into local gyms when they were closed during the weekends.


4. Arnold Schwarzenegger's love for films propelled his obsession with America and therefore saw competitive bodybuilding as an avenue through which he had to get there. He won the Mr. Universe title at the age of 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times.


5. Arnold Schwarzenegger immigrated to the United States in 1968 at the age of 21.


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6Self-made millionaire

Self-made millionaire

Arnold Schwarzenegger was already a self-made millionaire at the age of 30 before appearing in his first movie. He used what he learned in school to invest his bodybuilding contest winnings in real estate and to market gym equipment and exercise supplements.


7. Arnold Schwarzenegger is famous for using psychological tricks on his opponents. Once when he was having breakfast with Lou Ferrigno and his family, Arnold looked across at Lou who had already placed second to him at last year's Mr. Olympia competition and said: "I'm going to win Mr. Olympia for the 6th time, don't you think that's incredible?" He seemed so confident that Ferrigno and his parents accepted that Schwarzenegger had already won.


8. Arnold found that in bodybuilding shows the top 5 bodybuilders have very little difference between them and that a bodybuilder who stands onstage and convinces the judges with attitude and confidence in the presentation won in the end. On one occasion, if he was pumping iron backstage during the day's pre-judging session, he would walk up to a fellow competitor and ask "Do you have some knee injury that you've been dealing with?" The competitor would look at him and say "No, no injury. My knees are fine." Arnold would then walk away saying "Well it certainly looks like it because your legs are a lot slimmer than when we competed last time." The effectiveness of Arnold's way of psyching out his enemy before they actually stood onstage was later explained by him in interview years later.


9. Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked Sylvester Stallone into starring in 'Stop or My Mom Will Shoot' by spreading rumors that he wanted the lead role. Stallone took the role just to keep it from Arnie.


10. While filming Predator, Jesse Ventura was delighted to find out from the wardrobe department that his arms were one inch bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger's. He suggested to Schwarzenegger that they measure arms and the winner gets a bottle of champagne. Ventura lost because Schwarzenegger had told the wardrobe department to tell Ventura that his arms were bigger.


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11Terminator

Terminator

In preparation for 'Terminator', he worked with guns every day for a month, practicing weapon stripping and reassembly blindfolded until the motions were automatic. He spent hours at the shooting range practicing with weapons without looking when reloading or cocking.


12. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't allowed to voice himself in the German dub of "The Terminator" because the producers thought that his Austrian accent wasn't tough enough for the Terminator. In fact, he's never dubbed himself in all of his movies since.


13. After Kanye West's mother's death due to heart problems resulting from her cosmetic surgery, Governor Schwarzenegger signed the "Donda West Law" legislation making it mandatory to prove well being prior to undergoing cosmetic surgery.


14. For staring in the 1988 comedy film Twins, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito both agreed to take 20% of the film's box office take instead of their usual salaries. This resulted in them receiving the biggest paychecks of their movie careers.


15. Arnold Schwarzenegger did not accept his California governor's salary of $175,000 per year because of his already substantial wealth from his acting career.


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16The Terminator

The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger only spoke 74 words in The Terminator.


17. During filming of "Conan The Barbarian", Arnold Schwarzenegger had to cut down his workout routine because his arm and chest muscles were so big that he couldn't wield a sword properly.


18. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the deadliest film actor of all time with 369 on-screen kills.


19. Arnold Schwarzenegger saved a drowning man's life in 2004 while on vacation in Hawaii.


20. Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965 to fulfill the one year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian males. Arnold Schwarzenegger went AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) from the army to compete in a bodybuilding competition. When he was caught sneaking back on post his superiors found out he won and he was given 3 hours a day to work out for the rest of his time in service.


21Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis

When Schwarzenegger turned down the planned sequel to Commando, it was reworked to star Bruce Willis and was retitled Die Hard.


22. There is a computer programming language called ArnoldC based entirely on Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes.


23. One afternoon during a break in filming The Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger went into a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles to get some lunch and realized all too late that he was still in Terminator makeup with a missing eye, exposed jawbone and burned flesh.


24. In 1977, Arnold posed nude for the gay magazine After Dark.


25. After the 1975 Mr. Olympia contest, Schwarzenegger announced his retirement from professional bodybuilding. In 1980, he was in good shape after training for his role for Conan, when he announced he wanted to participate one last time. Schwarzenegger ended up winning the event with only seven weeks of preparation.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Arnold has an MBA from one of the top universities in the world and as of about 20 years ago (I don’t know about now) every dollar he earned he turned into five through his investments.
    It’s not that his accent wasn’t “tough enough” his German accent is a rural one that they didn’t think was appropriate for someone coming from the future.

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