Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the biggest movie stars on the planet – both literally and figuratively. Despite some struggles in the beginning thanks to his accent, the Austrian Oak went on to become the box office king of the 1980s action movie scene. And not only that, he would go on to be elected the Governor of California! And anyway, that accent would end up becoming one of his hallmarks when he had made his way to the top. Schwarzenegger has millions of fans across the globe, and there are many reasons for that. So, here are 10 of the reasons why people love Arnold Schwarzenegger so much!

10. He’s an all-round good guy

A couple of years ago, a 19-year-old kid who was 6’5” and weighed 130 lbs posted on Reddit that he wasn’t confident in the gym and kept buckling on the dead lift and feeling embarrassed that other people in the gym were laughing at him. Two days later, Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the rescue with a touching and inspirational response: “I always say don’t be afraid of failure, because how far can you really fall? You found out – to the ground. It’s right there. Now you know it isn’t anything that should scare you. You should be proud that you weren’t afraid – not embarrassed that you failed. You could have made excuses not to walk into the door, but you didn’t. You knew it would be hard, and it would be uncomfortable, and it might be awkward – and you did it anyway. That’s courage. I’m proud of you…I’m rooting for you, too. You took the first step and you fell, but at least you fell in the right direction, so get back up and take the next step. Keep moving forward.” What a good guy! The kid wrote back that Arnie’s support was “something else” and that “the tiny weights that I can pick up won’t know what lifted them.”

9. He inspired Rob Liefeld to create Deadpool

Until 2016, Deadpool was not a very well known character in the Marvel Comics universe, but of course, thanks to Ryan Reynolds, he is now one of the most popular superheroes in the world. Before Reynolds came along, he had been around for years. He was created by Rob Liefeld, who was actually inspired to create the character by the comedy movie Twins, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito as an unlikely pair of twin brothers. Liefeld explained the influence of Schwarzenegger’s cult classic movie on his creation of the Merc with a Mouth: “That movie meant a lot to me…I said, ‘Wolverine in this scenario is Arnold.’ He’s Weapon X. Weapon 10. I said to Marvel, ‘Do we have this correct? Weapon X is Weapon 10?’ And they said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘We’ve seen not 1 through 9?’ They said, ‘No, we haven’t seen 1 through 9.’ Then I said, ‘Deadpool is that. He’s Danny DeVito. He’s burned, he’s scarred, he looks like shit. Because they hadn’t refined it yet.’ And Marvel…I kid you not, they were like, ‘Yeah whatever, go with it! Cool!’ So, without Arnold Schwarzenegger, we might not have Deadpool – yet another reason to absolutely adore the guy!

8. He has artistic integrity

A lot of movie stars seem to find it impossible to turn down money. If an offer comes their way and there is a cash figure attached to the script, they will snatch it up. But not Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was offered the chance to reprise his role as Dutch in the new Predator movie and he turned it down. He said, “They asked me, and I read it, and I didn’t like it – whatever they offered. So, I’m not going to do that, no. Except if there’s a chance that they rewrite it or make it a more significant role. But the way it is now, no, I won’t do that.” Despite what Schwarzenegger might have thought of the script, Stacey Snider, the CEO of 20th Century Fox, is a big fan. She said, “We’ve got a Predator film coming out that is unexpected and utterly fresh. I just imagined that it would take 500 hours to read the script – that it would be interior jungle, exterior more jungle, and then fighting happens, but Emma [Watts, a Fox executive] went out and recruited Shane Black. From the first page, it didn’t read like a Predator film. It’s set in suburbia. There’s a little boy and his dad at the center of the action.” So, hey, maybe it will be a good movie – even without Arnie on board.

7. He’s still making action movies in his seventies

Very few people are ever physically fit enough to star in a bunch of action movies, let alone that fit for more than a couple of decades. And yet, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been starring in his own action movies into his seventies. He’s getting so old that the directors of his movies are having to explain why he’s so old in the movies. The killer cyborg that he played in the ‘80s and ‘90s as a young man has wrinkles and gray hair in the 2015 reboot. James Cameron, the original creator of the franchise, is returning for the sixth movie, and he has had to explain how the movie is going to handle Arnie’s age. He said, “You don’t have to get around it. The beauty of it is: he’s a cyborg. And so, the ‘org’ part is on the outside, meaning ‘organism.’ And Reese says it in the first film: ‘They sweat. They have bad breath.’ Because they were supposed to be infiltration units, so there’s this idea that flesh sort of sheaths over a metal endo-skeleton. So, that would age normally. So, obviously he’s one that’s been in action and operation for a long time. And that’s all I want to say about the actual story part of it.” Ooh, surprises!

6. He tricked Sylvester Stallone into doing Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot

Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot is a universally despised buddy action comedy movie about a cop who is paired up with his mother, played by Estelle Getty. One might wonder why the hell a big movie star like Sylvester Stallone would agree to star in such a piece of garbage. Well, as it turns out, in this particular case, a sneaky Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked him into doing it while the two stars were at the height of their rivalry. Schwarzenegger explained, “I read the script. It was so bad. You know, I’ve also done some movies that went right in the toilet, right? That were bad. But this was really bad. So, I went in – this was during [my rivalry with Stallone] – I said to myself, ‘I’m going to leak out that I have tremendous interest.’ I know the way it works in Hollywood. I would then ask for a lot of money. So, then they’d say, ‘Let’s go give it to Sly. Maybe we can get him for cheaper.’ So, they told Sly, ‘Schwarzenegger’s interested. Here’s the press clippings. He’s talked about that. If you want to grab that one away from him, that is available.’ And he went for it! He totally went for it. A week later, I heard about it, ‘Sly is signing now to do this movie.’ And I said, [pumps fist] ‘Yes!’” It was a great scam and it worked perfectly.

5. And now, he has a bromance with Stallone

Arnold Schwarzenegger had a major rivalry with fellow action movie star Sylvester Stallone in the 1980s. For two decades, the two stars hated each other. But now, they’re good friends. They’ve appeared in a handful of movies together and they like to hang out off set between filming. How did two guys who used to hate each other so much become such good friends? Well, Mikael Hafström, who has directed them together in Escape Plan, attributes it to their age. He told People magazine, “Now that they are a little bit older, I think they really enjoy the fact they have mutual experiences. They can have fun together, they can relax. They don’t have to show anything to anyone anymore. You can tell they like being on set. They like telling old war stories, they like smoking their cigars. They earned it.” According to Stallone, what Schwarzenegger likes to do with him is “shopping on the weekends. He’s an unbelievable shopper. He’s a real badass, but he likes to play chess. He’s addicted to chess, which I find…Are you joking? Water ski. Do something. Chess!” Stallone summed up their bromantic relationship perfectly: “I don’t know why we get along so well. It goes to show you: A good enemy is hard to find.”

4. He’s responsible for a ton of iconic movie quotes

A lot of movie actors are lucky to be able to utter one iconic quote in their careers. Arnold Schwarzenegger has had dozens. “Come with me if you want to live,” and “Hasta la vista, baby!” and “I’ll be back,” came from the Terminator movies, while “If it bleeds, we can kill it,” and “You are one ugly motherfucker!” and “Get to the chopper!” are all from Predator. When he shoots his pretend wife Sharon Stone in the head, he tells her, “Consider that a divorce!” “You’ve just been erased,” was a line uttered by his character John “the Eraser” Kruger. In Commando, he tells a bad apple named Sully, “You’re a funny guy, Sully. I like you. That’s why I’m going to kill you last.” And then when he doesn’t kill him last, he simply tells him, “I lied.” So many iconic quotes. Who knows why so many lines that Arnie has uttered on the big screen have resonated so much with a wide moviegoing audience? Maybe it’s because he’s smart in the scripts he chooses, picking only the ones with the most memorable dialogue. Maybe it’s simply because of his lovable Austrian accent. Either way, the guy is responsible for some of the most iconic movie quotes of all time.

3. His thick Austrian accent

Arnold Schwarzenegger has become famous for his thick Austrian accent. It has made him a fun impression to try out and has made his voice just as recognizable as his face. It’s actually one of the main things that people love about the guy – it’s one of his trademarks as a movie star. When you cast him in the lead role of your movie, you don’t just get a bulky man with huge muscles – you also get that accent. As it turns out, he actually doesn’t need the accent anymore, because he is actually able to speak in perfectly clear Queen’s English. So, why does he keep doing the accent? Because his fans love it! The actor explained, “It’s now become such a big part of me, the accent, that people really enjoy it. The very things that they said would make it impossible for me to be successful in acting were the things that became my assets.” It’s ironic, right? Casting people never know what they’re talking about. They told him when he was starting out that the accent would be his downfall. It would’ve been great if he’d been able to lose the accent at the start of his career, since he had his voice dubbed over in his first movie and got cast to play a deaf mute in his second movie. But if he didn’t have the accent, would he be as popular and beloved as he is today?

2. He stands up to bullies

If there’s one thing that Arnold Schwarzenegger can’t stand on social media, it’s not persistent ads or fake news – it’s trolls. A couple of years ago, during the Special Olympics, one troll wrote, “The Olympics are for the best athletes in the entire world to compete against each other to determine who is best. Having retards competing is doing the opposite.” Schwarzenegger’s bold and considered and defensive response annihilated the vicious troll: “As evil and stupid as this comment is, I’m not going to delete it or ban you (yet) because it’s a teachable moment. You have two possible paths ahead. Right now, I guarantee you that these athletes have more courage, compassion, brains and skill – actually more of every positive human quality than you. So take their path ― you could learn from them, and try to challenge yourself, to give back, to add something to the world. Or you can stay on your path, and keep being a sad pitiful jealous Internet troll who adds nothing to the world but mocks anyone who does out of small-minded jealousy. I know that all you really want is attention, so let me be clear. If you choose to keep going this way, no one will ever remember you.”

1. He’s the Governator!

Of course people love Arnold Schwarzenegger. Anyone who can come from Austria and make their way to Hollywood and then star in a series of action movies as a killer cyborg is going to attract a lot of fans. If they can use that as a springboard to become one of the biggest movie stars of all time, then they’ll attract even more fans. If they manage to get out of the movie business and enter into a political career, even getting elected the Governor of California, without losing any fans or slowing down their movie career, then they transcend human existence and basically become a living god. Well, that’s Arnold Schwarzenegger for you. The main reason why so many people love him is basically that he is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since he is known for playing a Terminator and he went on to become the Governor of California, he was given a nickname that is a portmanteau of those two names: he is the Governator. That moniker proved to be so popular that it was adapted to becoming its own comic book, and hey, that comic book might even become a movie someday. Who knows? It would be a huge hit!