By Alan Chenkin, Learned about celebrities reading magazines at the supermarket checkout
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor, Bodybuilder, Movie Star. (link to eBay)
With an almost unpronounceable surname and a thick Austrian accent, who would have ever believed that a brash, quick talking bodybuilder from a small European village would become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, marry into the prestigious Kennedy family, amass a fortune via shrewd investments and one day be the Governor of California!?[1]
In his own words, on his emigration to America: “https://www.usnews.com/opinion/a…”
The following is from Wikipedia[2] :
Schwarzenegger, who dreamed of moving to the U.S. since the age of 10, and saw bodybuilding as the avenue through which to do so,[24]
realized his dream by moving to the United States in September 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English.[3][6]
There he trained at Gold’s Gym in Venice, Los Angeles, California, under Joe Weider. From 1970 to 1974, one of Schwarzenegger’s weight training partners was Ric Drasin, a professional wrestler who designed the original Gold’s Gym logo in 1973.[25]
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.[15]
The immigration law firm Siskind & Susser has stated that Schwarzenegger may have been an illegal immigrant at some point in the late 1960s or early 1970s because of violations in the terms of his visa.[26]
LA Weekly would later say 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”.[24]
In 1977, Schwarzenegger’s autobiography/weight-training guide Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder was published and became a huge success.[6]
After taking English classes at Santa Monica College in California, he earned a BA by correspondence from the University of Wisconsin–Superior, in international marketing of fitness and business administration in 1979. He got his American citizenship in 1983.[29]
He tells that during this time he ran into a friend who told him that he was teaching Transcendental Meditation (TM), which prompted Schwarzenegger to reveal he had been struggling with anxiety for the first time in his life: “Even today, I still benefit from [the year of TM] because I don’t merge and bring things together and see everything as one big problem.”[30] – Footnotes mostly from “Arnold Schwarzenegger” – Wikipedia.
Despite some setbacks, Governor Schwarzenegger (“The Governator”) is an inspiration and dedicated to the ideals of America as “the Land of Opportunity”.
Arnold Explaining hatred and bigotry to Donald trump.
Go Arnold!
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Edited and expanded from my answer on Quora.
Footnotes
