Arnold Schwarzenegger: Mr Universe to governator

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger, as a child in Austria in 1949, aged two Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

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 Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

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.” Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features/Everett Collection

As Conan the Barbarian, which was a box office success in 1982 Photograph: PR

And then in 1984 in the role other than governor that Arnie is best known for, the unstoppable cyborg in the Terminator trilogy films Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/MGM/Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar

With Danny Devito in the 1988 comedy, Twins Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/UNIVERSAL/Allstar/Cinetext/UNIVERSAL

In Junior (1994), which earned him his second Golden Globe nomination Photograph: Allstar/Cinetext/Universal/Allstar/Cinetext/Universal

On the election campaign trail in 2003, as he battled to unseat incumbent Gray Davis and become governor of California Photograph: Blake Sell/Reuters

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 Photograph: Stephen Savoia/AP

Speaking during a town hall meeting during which he announced he would run for re-election in November 2006 – he won a second term Photograph: Mike Blake /Reuters

Before the start of the Women's Conference 2008 in Long Beach, California Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

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 Photograph: Jim Young / Reuters/Reuters

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 Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters