Arnold Schwarzenegger

""Arnold Schwarzenegger is the Governor of California. There's a perfectly ordinary English sentence.""

- Dylan Moran

Austrian-born actor, (he became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1983), former bodybuilder, and Governator of the state of California from 2003 to 2011, a fact that a lot of people in general find to be very funny. He broke into acting with an unfortunate Hercules movie, which he then followed with Conan the Barbarian. He is now most famous for his roles in action films such as the Terminator series and Predator, with characters that always have a thick Austrian accent (it has, in fact, become so iconic of him that he has a speech coach to help him maintain the accent after years in America). His comedies (and even his later action films) vary. He was also a lifelong friend of Stan Winston, the master-puppeteer who quite literally made The Terminator out of him.

Also famous for his many Bond and Pre Mortem one liners; some of the cornier ones end up getting oft repeated for the sake of their corniness.

As shown by Commando, Kindergarten Cop and even Terminator 2, hurt a child or a teenager near to him and Schwarzenegger WILL fuck you up so bad that you'll need more than one coffin to be buried in.

Note also he is not as dumb as he looks, as he was smart enough to graduate with a University Degree in Business and Economics. When he made his breakthrough as an action star with Conan the Barbarian, he had already been a self-made milionaire for years, due to a number of smart business decisions. The acting was more of a hobby, and you could call him a Genius Bruiser in Real Life.

As governor of California, was a real-life case of Asskicking Equals Authority. If his political and business career are anything to judge him by, he's much smarter than people give him credit for. You know that vast fortune he has? Most of it didn't come from acting. He's also the biggest JFK fan known to man, being the man who paid thousands for a set of golf clubs used by JFK as well as marrying into the family... and yet, somewhat oddly, he's a Republican. A rather liberal Republican (especially in an era where Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly are major opinion leaders), but a Republican nonetheless. Also, he credits his loyalty to the Republican Party to a speech by an American President while he was still in Austria. The president? Richard Nixon. Chew on that for a while.

Went on record saying that when his gubernatorial term expired in January 2011, he will not seek another term, nor will he run for a House or Senate seat. Most likely because the harsh realities of Politics have been less than kind to him due to him being too far to the left of his own party and too far to the right for the Democrats. The sex scandal didn't help either. He has since confirmed that he will be returning to films. Unless the Constitution is amended to allow foreign-born citizens to run for President...

Also of note being a real life Determinator, claiming that choosing it as a life philosophy was the key to his success.

Not to be confused with The Ahnold, though he's the semi-Trope Namer. -


 * Pumping Iron, a 1970's documentary about the pro bodybuilding scene.
 * The Villain -- Handsome Stranger
 * Conan the Barbarian
 * Conan the Destroyer
 * The Terminator
 * Red Sonja
 * Commando -- John Matrix
 * Raw Deal -- Mark Kaminsky
 * Predator -- Dutch (this movie also starred Jesse Ventura, who would go on to become Governor of Minnesota.)
 * Red Heat -- Ivan Danko
 * The Running Man -- Ben Richards
 * Twins -- Where he played Danny DeVito's twin brother.
 * Total Recall
 * Kindergarten Cop
 * Terminator 2: Judgment Day
 * Last Action Hero
 * True Lies -- Harry Tasker
 * Junior -- He got pregnant in this one.
 * Eraser
 * Jingle All the Way
 * Batman and Robin -- Mr. Freeze.
 * End of Days -- Jericho Cane
 * The 6th Day
 * Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines
 * The Rundown -- Cameos as himself, telling The Rock to "have fun".
 * Around the World in Eighty Days -- Prince Hapi
 * The Expendables -- His last official film role while governor, albeit just a cameo. Also significant in that it is the first film he has ever shared actual screen time with 80's action hero rivals Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis.

Other:
 * Hamlet - "Hey, Claudius. You killed my fadda. Big mistake."
 * Demolition Man -- He doesn't appear, but is mentioned as having become President. Sylvester Stallone doesn't want to hear the details. The movie came out a decade before he ran for Governor.
 * Kalifohrnya -- Former Governor of.
 * The Governator -- As an animated version of himself... who's also a superhero.


 * Abusive Parents: He's said that "the rod was not spared" by his father, though also stressing that this was standard dicipline for the time. Still, the relationship between them was so bad that Arnold didn't go to his funeral.
 * The Ahnold: The Trope Codifier and Trope Namer
 * Authority Equals Asskicking: Damn right! He kicked ass even as a Governor of California.
 * Badass: Oh so much that he is well known.
 * Badass Grandpa: Would you believe he's currently in his 60s?
 * Genius Bruiser: He's not just smart and strong as two separate abilities. In Pumping Iron he actually mentions how he used his brain to help win bodybuilding competitions, by actively attempting to psych out the other competitors.
 * The vast majority of his fortune is also from his investments and business ventures, not from his acting paychecks.
 * Golden Mean Fallacy: During his second term as governor, he was pretty unpopular because other Republicans thought he was too far to the left, while Democrats thought he was too far to the right.
 * I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: to the point that whole films have been made specifically to be Arnold does X: "Ahnold gets pregnant," "Ahnold shops for Christmas toys," etc.
 * Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Arnold ALWAYS talks in his well-known accent. No matter what part he's playing. In most cases, this can be excused because his characters are rarely, if ever, claimed to be native born, so there's nothing stopping the character from being an Austrian immigrant. Still, one has to wonder why the T-800 has an accent that will make him stick out almost as much as his horrifying metal skeleton.
 * This gets Lampshaded every now and then. For instance, a deleted scene in Terminator 3 shows him as the human the T-800 was modeled on, speaking with a silly and whimsical Southern accent. When someone comments on the voice, a scientist, speaking in Arnold's actual voice, responds "We'll fix it."
 * Old Shame: Arnold's father was a member of the Nazi Party during World War Two (probably to keep his job as the local chief of police) and Arnold has spent much of his career battling accusations that he is a fascist sympathizer because of this.
 * Arnold has also expressed regret over appearing in the Red Sonja film, and has joked that he used to punish his children's bad behavior by making them watch it from start to finish.
 * Papa Wolf: In several roles in film particularly in The 6th Day where he plays two Arnolds.