if Arnie was never considered a good actor

Well he was a box office draw. Having his name attached to a project would help its appeal immensely.

He's not a good actor, he got his break because of his physique, which lead him to some iconic roles, the terminator, Conan and all those soldier/marine/action hero charcters where he just had to fire some guns and a few one liners. He was smart enough to get acting lessons and made himself into a true A list name.

"He's dusted, busted and disgusted, but he's ok"

He's a good actor IMHO. He was great as the Terminator.

Aerosmith and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fan

Arnold isn't a thespian. I could certainly never see him doing Shakespeare. His forte is action films where he spends the majority of his time fighting and a minority of it speaking.

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House. My room. Cant walk. My medal. My father. Father, dont!

I love Arnold but he's not a good actor, he's not bad neither. Its hard to really judge him as an actor but he did an amazing job playing the ruthless murderous machine the Terminator, even in T2.

Arnold's bodybuilding body is what attracted Hollywood. Stallone envied him for that, thats why he started training to get as big as Arnold and get more action roles..

I wouldn't say that Arnie is a bad actor. Let's just say that his range as an actor is limited. His heavy accent and massive physique limited the type of roles that he could do. He was thus always cast as the action hero.

But I have to give kudos to the man. He owned what others deemed his shortcomings (body, voice, accent, weird surname) and capitalized on them and turned them into his strengths. His success resulted in now people actually "wanting" to have a heavy accent, a huge physique and a weird surname.

He also tried his hand at comedic roles like "Twins" and "Kindergarten Cop" and succeeded in those as well. The man has incredible charisma and he is quite likeable, even when he is playing a complete jerk.

The last movie of his that I saw was "Escape Plan" which also featured his one time rival Stallone and I have to say that Arnie's acting in it was much better than Stallone's, whom some people consider to be a better actor than Arnie.

"I'm the dude, playing a dude that's disguised as another dude".

Nah, this is b.s.......just because Arnold never did dramas and Academy Award-level stuff doesn't mean he couldn't act. Mind you, I'm not calling him one of the great acting talents of our time - I'm merely saying the notion that he can't act is b.s.

A truly bad actor is unnatural and awkward on camera - to the point where the audience does not believe the performance and is taken out of the movie (or whatever the performance may be). That was never the case with Arnold - at least in the movies I've seen (Terminator in 1984 and beyond).

While the Terminator films and a lot of the action movies Arnold did may not have required exceptional, dramatic acting skills - Schwarzenegger was always natural and likable in them.

The movie that most comes to mind for me when discussing Arnold's acting skills is 'Twins', no doubt - he is so very innocent, naive, and likable in this film. Completely different from his action roles. That's a big testament to his acting in this one.

Theres no other actor who could play the terminator. No one. So he can act undeniably for this role as he was made for it.

I dont think there will be another bodybuilder who will get roles like arnold did. He managed to star in some of the most iconic movies, including several science fiction that broke new boundaries. His career is the stuff of legend.