Arnold's Biography

For school in my Writer’s Craft class, one of our assignments was to write a biography on a friend or celebrity and introduce them as a keynote speaker for an event and I decide to write it on Arnold Schwarzenegger. Dah, Arnold is my favourite actor and I already knew all about him. I got 8 out of 10 on this assignment. I lost marks because it was too long it was supposed to be only 100 words and my is about 300 words but I couldn't help it, especially when written about Arnold. I decided to put this speech on my website for Arnold’s biography as I include lots of key information about his life in it. Hope you enjoy reading it, as much as I enjoyed writing it.

There is so much more to Arnold Schwarzenegger then the BIG HOLLYWOOD STAR, which some people don’t realize. Arnold has accomplished so much with his life already and will probably continue to accomplish a lot more as well.

Arnold was born in Thal, Austria which is close to Graz on July 30, 1947. The second son of Gustav and Aurelia Schwarzenegger. Arnold had a older brother Meinhard (who later died in his twenties due to a car accident. Arnold was raised in a very strict catholic home. Arnold grew up on the second floor of the 300-year old home at 145 Thal-Linak (their house came with Gustav’s job as the chief of police), it had absolutely no modern amenities -no plumbing, no control heating, no phone, no carpeting and just a few lights. For many years they didn’t even have a refrigerator, they would have to fetch their water from a well every morning that was 150 yards away. Television was foreign to the Schwarzenegger family, so for entertainment they would listen to the radio or participating in sports. In fact, the only TV in Thal at the time was at the local Thalersee restaurant a tourist hot spot.

At a young age Arnold and his brother were very activity in many sports such as skiing, skating, swimming, soccer etc. Arnold’s role model as a child was Hercules he would watch all the Hercules movies and started collecting muscle magazines this is what led to his goal of becoming a body builder. At 13 years old he said to his parents “ I want to be the best-built man in the world.” His parents thought he was crazy, but Arnold was dead serious. During the year of 1961 Arnold met Kurt Marnul a professional body builder and former Mr. Austria. At 14, he started an intensive training program with Marnul. At 15 he studied psychology with Dr. Karl Gerstl to learn more about the power of the ming over the body. At 17 he officially started his competitive career.

At 18, Arnold was required to serve a year in the Austrian army, so he started serving. Arnold was assigned to be a tank driver, he was forbidden to leave the base for any conditions. But he left the base one day and hopped a train to Stuttgat to compete in a bodybuilding competition and won a trophy. When his commanding officers found out they went ballistic and threw him behind bars for seven long days. So naturally, after serving his time he was stripped of his tank driving duties and was re-assigned.

At 19, Arnold flew to London to compete in the Mr. Universe competition. Arnold loss this competition to an American named Chet Youton. But that did not reck his dreams of being the best, Arnold worked really hard analysing every part of his massive frame, he invented new exercises to separate and define the muscle groups. Then in 1967 he flew back to London to compete in the Mr. Universe contest for the second time. This time Schwarzenegger won Mr. Universe under the NABA (National Amateur Bodybuilding Association) in the amateur division. Later he found out that there was actually three Mr. Universes, he made the goal to win them all. At just 20 years old, he was the youngest Mr. Universes in the history of bodybuilding

Throughout Arnold’s bodybuilding career he won many awards, which included Mr. Universe five times, Mr. Olympia six times and Mr. World once before he retired form bodybuilding at 23 years old. He came back once again in 1980 to claim another Mr. Olympia title which would be his seventh one. The only reason he retired was that he had begun acting in motion pictures and now he had a new goal - to be the most popular film star in the world.

Arnold began to take acting classes to help perse his new dream to be an actor. Arnold’s first movie was Hercules in New York but his voice had to be doubled because he didn’t speak English that well yet. Arnold’s first movie hit was Conan the Barbadian, then he went on to start in other major hit movies like both Terminator movies, Commando, Predator, The Running Man, Twins, Junior, Eraser and The End of Days (which he did all his own stunts, to show he recovered from his heart surgery two and half years ago, this is his first movie since then as well) among other movies.

He also has been one of the co-owners of Planet Hollywood restaurant branch from 1991 until recently on January 25, 2000, when he sold his share. Arnold also owns a retardant with his wife Maria Shriver since 1991 called Schatzi on Main in Santa Monica, CA. Arnold meet Maria on August 28 1977 at the Annual Robert F. Kennedy Tennis Tournament in Forest Hills, New York. The two started dating and soon felling love and got married on April, 26, 1986. They share a family of four children they are Katherine, Christina, Patrick, Christopher.

Arnold was named Chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness in 1989. While serving he visited fifty states to promote physical fitness for children at his own expense. Arnold is also a major supporter of the Special Olympics which was started by the Shriver family with Danny Hernandez. Arnold heavily sponsors the organisation. Special Olympics is an international program of year round sports training and athletic competition for more than one million children and adults with mental retardation. Arnold also organizes the Inner-City Games for youth to keep them out of gangs, drugs and trouble. The Inner-City Games are designed to provide sports, educational, cultural and community enrichment activities for youths (ages 7 to 17) these activities are free and are open to participation by all young people in the community.

Arnold is not here to promote his movies today, he is here to promote something more important. Arnold is here to talk about the importance of fitness in children’s lives when they are younger. So now lets hand the floor over to Arnold.