Young Schwarzenegger went AWOL from the Austrian army to win a bodybuilding title
In 1965, doing compulsory service in the Austrian Army, eighteen-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger slipped away from basic training to compete in the Junior Mr. Europe contest. He won, and then spent a week in military prison. Later he admitted the competition meant so much to him that he never properly weighed the consequences.
Born on 30 July 1947 in Thal, in Styria, he grew up in a strict, cash-poor household where buying a refrigerator counted as a highlight. His father, the local police chief, openly favoured his older brother Meinhard. An average student who struggled with reading and was later found to be dyslexic, Arnold stood out for his exuberance. A football coach took the team to a gym around 1960, and by fourteen he had chosen bodybuilding over football, even breaking into the Graz gym at weekends when it was shut. Films starring muscle heroes such as Reg Park and Steve Reeves fed the dream.
His first plane journey, in 1966, took him to the Mr. Universe contest in London, where he placed second to the American Chester Yorton, whose leg definition beat his. One of the judges, Wag Bennett, offered to coach him and let the penniless Austrian stay in his crowded family home above a gym in Forest Gate, in east London. There he polished his English, worked on his legs and met his idol Reg Park, who became a mentor. In 1967, aged 20, he became the youngest ever Mr. Universe, a title he took three more times. He studied business in Munich and kept telling his English tutor he would become the greatest actor.
He went on to win Mr. Olympia seven times and earned the nickname the Austrian Oak. The 1977 documentary Pumping Iron opened a path into cinema, and Conan the Barbarian in 1982 made him a star. Two years later he played the Terminator, a role he returned to in four sequels, and his films have grossed more than 5.4 billion dollars.
Politics followed. In a 2003 recall election he became California's 38th governor, taking 48.6 percent of the vote, and he won re-election in 2006 with 55.9 percent before term limits returned him to acting in 2011.
Source: Arnold Schwarzenegger
