Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger Career History

Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian army in 1965, to fulfill the one year of service required at the time of all 18-year-old Austrian males. He won the Junior Mr. Europe contest in 1965. Schwarzenegger went AWOL during basic training so that he could take part in the competition, and spent a week in an army jail: "Participating in the competition meant so much to me that I didn't carefully think through the consequences. When I got to Stuttgart, I was all confused. I forgot my posing routine, I had to borrow posing trunks, but still I won!" Contrary to popular belief, it was not Schwarzenegger's bodybuilding debut, which had occurred two years earlier at a minor contest in Graz, at Steirer Hof Hotel (where he had placed second). He was voted best built man of Europe, which made him famous.

"The Mr. Universe title was my ticket to America — the land of opportunity, where I could become a star and get rich." Schwarzenegger made his first plane trip in 1966, attending the NABBA Mr. Universe competition in London. He would come in second in the Mr. Universe competition, not having the muscle "definition" of American winner Chester Yorton. He would win the title for the first time in 1967 (he invented new exercises to separate and define his muscle groups), becoming the youngest ever Mr. Universe at the age of 20.He would go on to win the title a further four times. Schwarzenegger then flew back to Munich, training for four to six hours daily, attending business school and working in a health club (Rolf Putzinger's gym where he worked and trained from 1966-1968), returning in 1968 to London to win his next Mr. Universe title. He frequently told Roger Field, a friend in Munich at that time "I'm going to become the greatest actor!"

Schwarzenegger moved to the United States in September 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English. "Naturally, when I came to this country, my English was very bad, and my accent was also very strong, which was an obstacle as I began to pursue acting." There he trained at Gold's Gym in Santa Monica, California, under the patronage of Joe Weider. From 1970 to 1974, one of Schwarzenegger's weight training partners was Ric Drasin, the bodybuilder and professional wrestler who designed the original Gold's Gym logo in 1973. Schwarzenegger also became good friends with professional wrestler "Superstar" Billy Graham. In 1970, at age 23, he captured his first Mr. Olympia title in New York, and would go on to win the title a total of seven times.

In 1969, Schwarzenegger met Barbara Outland Baker, an English teacher he lived with until 1974. Schwarzenegger talked about Barbara in his memoir in 1977: "Basically it came down to this: she was a well-balanced woman who wanted an ordinary, solid life, and I was not a well-balanced man, and hated the very idea of ordinary life." Baker has described Schwarzenegger as "a joyful personality, totally charismatic, adventurous, and athletic" but claims towards the end of the relationship he became "insufferable — classically conceited — the world revolved around him." Baker published her memoir in 2006, entitled Arnold and Me: In the Shadow of the Austrian Oak. Although Baker, at times, paints an unflattering portrait of her former lover — Schwarzenegger actually contributed to the "tell-all" book with a "foreword," and also met with Baker for three hours. Baker claims, for example, that she only learned of his being unfaithful after they split, and talks of a turbulent and passionate love life. Schwarzenegger has made it clear that their respective recollection of events can differ. The couple first met six to eight months after his arrival in the U.S. — their first date was watching the first Apollo Moon landing on television. They shared an apartment in Santa Monica for three and a half years, and having little money, would visit the beach all day, or have barbecues in the back yard. Although Baker claims that when she first met him, he had "little understanding of polite society" and she found him a "turn-off," she says, "He's as much a self-made man as it's possible to be — he never got encouragement from his parents, his family, his brother. He just had this huge determination to prove himself, and that was very attractive ... I'll go to my grave knowing Arnold loved me."

Schwarzenegger met his next love, Sue Moray, a Beverly Hills hairdresser's assistant, on Venice Beach in July 1977. According to Moray, the couple led an "open relationship": "We were faithful when we were both in LA...but when he was out of town, we were free to do whatever we wanted."Schwarzenegger met Maria Shriver at the Robert F. Kennedy Tennis Tournament in August 1977, and went on to have a relationship with both women until August 1978, when Moray (who knew of his relationship with Shriver) issued an ultimatum.

Schwarzenegger has said his "big dream" from the age of 10 was to move to the U.S. He questioned what he was doing "on the farm" in Austria, and believed bodybuilding was his "ticket to America": "I’m sure I can go to America if I win Mr. Universe." LA Weekly said in 2002 that Schwarzenegger is the most famous immigrant in America, who "overcame a thick Austrian accent and transcended the unlikely background of bodybuilding to become the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990s.

Article Source: www.wikipedia.org