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Arnold Schwarzenegger Filmography
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Arnold Schwarzenegger: Acting career
Growing bored with professional bodybuilding, which he began to view as a "go nowhere" career, Schwarzenegger began to pursue a career as an actor. His uniquely muscular appearance earned him several movie roles. His first film appearance was as Hercules in Hercules in New York (1970), credited under the name Arnold Strong, although his accent in the film was so thick that his lines were dubbed. He appeared in
The Long Goodbye, and Stay Hungry. Schwarzenegger came to the attention of more people in the documentary Pumping Iron (1977), elements of which were dramatized. In 1991, Schwarzenegger purchased the rights to this film, outtakes, and associated still photography that could be embarrassing politically. Initially he had trouble breaking into films because agents disliked his surname, muscles and accent.
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Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was Conan the Barbarian (1982), and this was cemented by a sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984). As an actor, he is most well-known as the title character of James Cameron's cyborg thriller The Terminator (1984). Schwarzenegger's acting ability (described by one critic as having an emotional range that "stretches from A almost to B") has long been the butt of many jokes; he retains a strong Austrian accent in his speech even in roles which do not call for such an accent. However, few of the fans of his work seem to care. He also made a mark for injecting his films with a droll, often self-deprecating sense of humor, setting him apart from more serious action heroes such as
Sylvester Stallone, his most prominent contemporary. (As an aside, his alternative-universe comedy/thriller Last Action Hero
featured a poster of the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day who in that alternate universe had Sylvester Stallone as its star; a similar in-joke in Twins suggested that the two actors might one day co-star, something which never came to pass).
Following his arrival as a Hollywood superstar, he made a number of commercially successful films: Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986), The Running Man (1987), and Red Heat (1988). In Predator (1987), another commercially successful film, Schwarzenegger led a cast which included future Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura (Ventura also appears in
Running Man) and future Kentucky Gubernatorial Candidate Sonny Landham. Twins, (1988) a comedy with
Danny DeVito, was a change of pace. Total Recall (1990), at that time the most expensive film ever, netted Schwarzenegger $10 millon and 15% of the gross, and hid a widely praised, thought-provoking science-fiction script behind his usual violent action. Kindergarten Cop (1990) was another comedy.
Schwarzenegger's critical and commercial high-water mark was ' (1991). His next film project, the self-aware action comedy Last Action Hero, (1993), had the misfortune to be released opposite Jurassic Park
, and suffered accordingly. Schwarzenegger's career never again achieved quite the same prominence, his aura of box-office invincibility suffering. True Lies (1994) was a popular sendup of spy films, and saw Schwarzenegger reunited with director James Cameron, whose own career had taken off with The Terminator
. It was followed by the popular, albeit by-the-numbers Eraser (1996), and Batman & Robin (1997), his final film before taking time to recuperate from a back injury. Although Batman & Robin was a famous disaster, Schwarzenegger emerged largely unscathed. Several film projects were announced with Schwarzenegger attached to star including the remake of The Planet of the Apes, a new film of I am Legend and a World War II film scripted by Quentin Tarrantino that would have seen Schwarzenegger finally play an Austrian. Instead he returned with End of Days (1999) - an unsuccessful and atypically dark attempt to broaden his acting range - The 6th Day (2000) and Collateral Damage (2002), none of which came close to recapturing his former prominence. Harry Knowles stated that by this stage Schwarzenegger appeared to be indifferent to his fans and was mostly doing the films for the upfront paycheck he could command in order to support his political ambitions. He starred in ' (2003) and was slated to star in a possible
True Lies 2 and Conan the King, but his duties as California governor have likely put his movie career on hold until at least 2007, though producers repeatedly claim he will make a small appearance in a fourth
Terminator film. His last film appearance to date was a cameo in the 2004 remake of Around the World in 80 Days.
- ' (2003)
- Collateral Damage (2002)
- The 6th Day (2000)
- End of Days (1999)
- Batman & Robin (1997)
- Jingle All the Way (1996)
- Eraser (1996)
- Junior (1994)
- True Lies (1994)
- Last Action Hero (1993)
- ' (1991)
- Kindergarten Cop (1990)
- Total Recall (1990)
- Twins (1988)
- Red Heat (1988)
- Predator (1987)
- The Running Man (1987)
- Raw Deal (1986)
- Commando (1985)
- The Terminator (1984)
- Conan the Destroyer (1984)
- Conan the Barbarian (1982)
- Pumping Iron documentary (1977)
- Hercules in New York (1970)
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