Arnold Schwarzenegger is born, July 30, 1947

On this day in 1947, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who served two terms as the Republican governor of California from 2003 to 2011, after careers as a bodybuilder and Hollywood movie star, was born in Styria, Austria.

In a 2,300-word speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention that renominated President George W. Bush, Schwarzenegger said: “To think that a once scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become governor of the state of California and then stand here — and stand here in Madison Square Garden and speak on behalf of the president of the United States. That is an immigrant’s dream! It’s the American Dream.”


Schwarzenegger, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1983, is barred by the Constitution from seeking the presidency. Nevertheless, the plot of “Demolition Man,” a Sylvester Stallone movie released in 1993, 10 years before Schwarzenegger ran for political office, postulates passage of a constitutional amendment that enabled Schwarzenegger to be elected president.

After deciding to pursue a career as a bodybuilder at age 15, Schwarzenegger went on to win the Mr. Universe contest at age 20, the first of five such annual titles. He also won the Mr. Olympia title seven times.

In 1986, Schwarzenegger married Maria Shriver, who suspended her career as a television journalist when the couple moved into the Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento. Schwarzenegger and Shriver, a member of prominent political family and the niece of President John F. Kennedy, separated after 25 years of marriage when it came to light that Schwarzenegger had a long-term affair with their housekeeper and had sired a child with her while Shriver was pregnant with the youngest of the couple’s four children.

Schwarzenegger once said: “Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million, but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.”

SOURCE: “TOTAL RECALL,” BY ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, WITH PETER PETRE, SIMON & SCHUSTER (2012)