Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born in Thal in Austria on 30 July, 1947.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's father, Gustav, was a policeman.
Arnold Schwarzenegger began body building at an early age and, in 1965, won the Mr Junior Europe contest.
Schwarzenegger's official website describes his progress like this:
"At 14, he started an intensive training program with Kurt Marnul, the former Mr. Austria. At 15, he studied psychology with Dr. Karl Gerstl to learn more about the power of mind over body. At 17, he officially started his competitive career. And at 18, he got thrown in jail."
His spell in jail was for slipping out of his army camp to attend a body building contest.
Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up winning (between 1970 and 1980) an unprecedented seven Mr. Olympia titles.
By the time he retired from body building, Schwarzenegger had graduated in marketing and business administration at University of Wisconsin and had started to pick up film roles.
In 1977 he was featured in the documentary Pumping Iron, and around the same time he wrote The Education of a Body Builder.
Soon after, he was the nude centrefold of Cosmopolitan and won a Golden Globe for best newcomer for his role in Stay Hungry.
In the early 1980s the popular films Terminator and Conan The Barbarian were released and established Schwarzenegger as a box-office draw.
A number of action films like Total Recall followed, but Schwarzenegger also widened his acting repertoire to comedies like Twins.
Meanwhile he had gained American citizenship and in the mid-1980s Schwarzenegger married the niece of John F Kennedy, Maria Shriver.
In October 2003 Schwarzenegger, standing as a Republican, was elected Governor of California.
In January 2007 he was sworn in for a second term.
In January 2008, Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed John McCain's bid to become the Republican candidate for US president, calling him 'a great American hero'.
AskMen.com has an interesting feature on Arnold Schwarzenegger.