You can say many things about Arnold Schwarzenegger but you can't say he hasn't had an interesting career. From his early successes conquering the body-building world then taking on box office-smashing Hollywood roles, no one would have guessed his eventual election as governor of California. But with his reign there on the rocks and Arnie's next step unpredictable as ever, here is a look back at his life in pictures
Thu 28 May 2009 05.29 EDT First published on Thu 28 May 2009 05.29 EDT
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, as a child in Austria in 1949, aged two
Schwarzenegger in 1970. At the tender age of 20 he won Mr Universe for the first of four times, and by 23 he was living in the US and had achieved the highest body-building accolade there is, Mr Olympia
The build-up to that championship was chronicled in the 1977 docudrama Pumping Iron, in which Schwarzenegger remarked: "Going through the pain barrier, that’s what makes the muscles grow. There’s this pain, this aching, and going on and on and on. That’s what divides a champion from a non-champion – having the guts to go through the pain barrier.”
Conan the Republican (as known by George H W Bush) celebrated his victory in the gubernatorial recall election in Los Angeles, 2003, with wife Maria Shriver
US President Barack Obama meets the California governor in March 2009. Obama has rolled out car emission legislation that was part of Schwarzenegger's environmental policy
The governor's ring captured at the White House on 19 May 2009 – the same day voters defeated ballot measures to bolster the state's finances. Hard-hit California faces new, deep cuts in education and thousands of state lay-offs
