Arnold Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger grew up in a small Austrian village, took up bodybuilding as a teenager against his father's wishes, and emigrated to the United States in his early twenties with little English and even less money, supporting himself with construction and bricklaying work while training for competitions.

Bodybuilder, box-office titan, and the decade's definitive science fiction star, whether killing machine, protector or confused everyman on Mars, Arnold was the 80s–90s genre engine. A five-time Mr. Olympia champion before he seriously pursued acting, he was originally considered for the heroic role of Kyle Reese in The Terminator before James Cameron realized his imposing, unnatural physicality was far better suited to playing the villain.

He went on to headline an extraordinary run of action blockbusters through the 1980s and 90s, becoming one of the highest-paid actors in the world, before later serving two terms as Governor of California — one of the more unusual and improbable career pivots in Hollywood history, and one that briefly took him away from acting entirely.