Welcome to a new installment in the “The Many Faces of…” series, where each week I take a look at all the roles an actor did. I decided that as I’m a big action movie fan it was time to also shine the spotlight on an action star. He might not be the best actor in the world, but Arnold Schwarzenegger has screen presence and it’s always a joy to watch his movies.
Before starting his movie career he was a very successful bodybuilder, winning his first Mr. Universe title when he was 20 and continued winning for several years. After he was done with the sport he wanted to become an actor, which initially was difficult because of his unusual body, his accent and long name. He persisted and finally got his big breakthrough with his role in Barbarian. Through the years he grew into one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood.
Picking a favorite role isn’t difficult as his most iconic role to me is that of The Terminator. The way he looks fits the role perfectly and with his iconic “I’ll be back” the first two movies are classic science fiction/action movies that people fondly remember.
What’s your favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger role?
Some great quotes:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxn0Xfqkgw]
See I always imagined him in more roles than this.
My favourite will always be Predator. But I think that is more about the film than his acting
Yeah, I was surprised as well. Looking at them I really felt like I should start rewatching some of them 🙂
Predator was a good movie: “If it bleeds, we can kill it!”
I also thought that he was in way more films. Favourite has to be T2, he is just perfect as a machine. Though I do have a soft spot for Conan; there a few people who could get a away with biting a vulture and punching a camel!
Another vote for The Terminator, great choice! 🙂
I must admit I still have not seen Conan!
I didn’t know that he’s filling for a cartoon character. what movie is it? love his appearance in batman and robin
Yes, he did in Liberty’s Kids: Est. 1776. I didn’t know the cartoon, but for that show a lot of big actors have done voices, like Sylvester Stallone (as Paul Revere), Ben Stiller (as Thomas Jefferson), Billy Crystal (as John Adams) and Dustin Hoffman (as Benedict Arnold)
Hi, Nostra and company:
Refreshing topic today!
Arnie hit his zenith with the ‘Terminator’, ‘Predator’, ‘Commando’ Trifecta. Playing larger than life characters who defined the word ‘Action’. A realm where he reigned supreme and from which he never should have strayed.
Setting the stage with ‘Terminator’. Then absolutely reveling in Testosterone, sweat and Cordite in ‘Predator’. With an over the top After Action Report in ‘Commando’. Never taking himself or his character too seriously while always delivering the goods.
I thank James Cameron for having either the wisdom, whimsy or foresight in giving the role of the Terminator to Arnie. When it was originally slated to have gone to Michael Biehn.
NIce writeup as always Jack. Like most action stars it seemed he also had to try his hand at comedies, which weren’t all as succesfull or good.
Love Arnie, it took him “retiring” for me to realize but it’s been a big part of my childhood movies. Tough to select my favorite one but I will go with True Lies, which is a bit underrated IMO.
Love Arnie, it took him “retiring” for me to realize but it’s been a big part of my childhood movies. Tough to select my favorite one but I will go with True Lies, which is a bit underrated IMO.
I’ve seen him in so many movies as well, making this one really made me think about revisiting a lot of them. True Lies was good, although it’s been a while since I’ve seen it.
Ahh, Arnie, I do love him. My favourite films of his would be Predator, Conan the Barbarian and then Terminator 😀
Great choices, all his classic roles!
I don’t think he’s much of an actor, though he did try to vary his roles a bit he’s always Arnie, y’know. I think no matter what he does, he’ll always be known as Terminator… or the Governator 🙂
With Arnold I really don’t care about his acting abilities, he’s just fun watching.
Man! Friday was such a busy busy day for me! I missed my morning reading of Friday’s Faces! Sorry about that!
Okay! The Governator!! YES!! ha.
I like True Lies quite a bit and still await the sequel. But, believe it or not, I’mg actually gonna call Jingle All The Way as one of my more favorite roles of Arnold! Fun, a little cheesy, holiday filled laughs…I enjoy the flick! 🙂
Nice pick today!!
Ahh, Jingle All The Way! I’m definitely going to watch that when it gets more Christmassy! 😀
Ok, I’ll join in on it. Maybe we could do a combined review 🙂
Hooray!!!!!
No worries, the Friday Faces is always waiting for you 😉
I wanted to do an action star for a while so had this one planned it. It’s funny that it happened to be the exact week with the Golden Tickets everyone posting, so that was a nice coincidence.
Jingle All the Way is a very surprising choice. Never saw it, but it was on TV a couple of weeks ago and it looks like a movie I probably wouldn’t enjoy.
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Hmmm thats a tough call between T2 and Predator. good topic
They are very different roles, but then each of them has their unique things that make them fun. I think Predator has the greater quotes 😉
My personal favourite is probably The Terminator 2, followed by The Predator. Arnie was his vintage best in those films.
Having seen both of those movies I can completely understand that. He was great in them!
What was the quote from Predator when he explains to the audience that mude makes him invisible…Is the clip somewhere?
I can’t remember, but it’s probably up on youtube…
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