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Where Terminator stars are now…from celibate pin-up to unrecognisable child star

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SEVERAL stars have battled addiction and been caught up in scandals
SEVERAL stars have battled addiction and been caught up in scandals

HASTA La Vista, Baby. The Terminator celebrates its 40th birthday this year.

And this week movie legend Arnold Schwarzenegger revealed he has had a fourth heart op - joking he has become even more like the indestructible cyborg he plays in the movie.

Arnold Schwarzenegger became a household name eiddikriezprw
Arnold Schwarzenegger became a household nameCredit: Getty
The icon's joked he's even more like his on-screen persona after a fourth heart op
The icon's joked he's even more like his on-screen persona after a fourth heart op

“Last Monday, I had surgery to become a little bit more of a machine: I got a pacemaker," he revealed on his Arnold's Pump Club podcast.

Director James Cameron based the 1984 sci-fi film on a dream he had.

Living out of his car at the time, he sold the script for just $1 on the condition he would be allowed to direct it.

From tongue scraping to saying no, here are 12 health trends to try in 2023From tongue scraping to saying no, here are 12 health trends to try in 2023

Costing just £5m to make, expectations for the film were low, but it topped the US box office for two weeks, grossing £60m.

The multi-million dollar franchise, with sequels, a TV series, comic books, novels and video games made household names out of its stars, including Arnie and Linda Hamilton.

So where are the original cast now?

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnie’s Terminator coined the famous catchphrase “I’ll Be Back” - but he has rarely been far away from the spotlight or controversy in the 40 years since.

The bodybuilder-turned-actor starred in all but one of the Terminator movies and went on to become Republican Governor of California from 2003-2011, and was named as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2004 and 2007.

He earned just £60,000 for his role in the first movie and only spoke 17 lines but the film turned him into one of the most famous action heroes of all time and helped spawn his political career.

During the former Mr Universe’s initial election campaign for Governor, allegations of sexual and personal misconduct were raised against Schwarzenegger , and he later admitted he had “behaved badly sometimes” and apologised.

He married journalist Maria Shriver, niece of former President John F Kennedy, in 1986 and the couple had four children together. But they split after 25 years in 2011 and it was revealed that Schwarzenegger had fathered a child, Joseph, with household staff member Patty Baena 14 years earlier.

He was born just five days after Shriver gave birth to the couple’s youngest child.

Linda Hamilton

Linda was married to director James Cameron
Linda was married to director James Cameron
The star, pictured in T2, became a pin up
The star, pictured in T2, became a pin upCredit: TriStar

Hamilton played troubled waitress Sarah Connor in the sci-fi franchise. But her relationship with the film’s director James Cameron was to become even stranger than fiction.

I want my girlfriend to try dirty talk but she won't do itI want my girlfriend to try dirty talk but she won't do it

The couple fell for each other around the time of Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, and their daughter Josephine was born two years later.

But the relationship hit a rocky patch while he was filming Titanic, and they were on a break when he started dating actress Suzy Amis who had a role in the film.

Cameron then left Amis to go back to Hamilton and the pair married in 1997, only to divorce in 1999, leaving Cameron free to marry Amis in 2000.

Speaking about her marriage in 2010, Hamilton explained: "While he was making Titanic, Suzy was the gargoyle on the end of my bed, waiting to swoop in," she said.

"Now I'm the gargoyle on her bed because for Jim, the one who doesn't end up with him is always the one he wants. I'm the one who got away, and she has to live with that.”

In 2019, she revealed she had been celibate for 15 years, telling People: “One loses track because it just doesn’t matter — or at least it doesn’t matter to me. I have a very romantic relationship with my world every day and the people who are in it.” 

She also revealed she was happy to step away from the limelight after a stint on the TV show Chuck ended in 2012.

“I woke up one day and I was like, ‘Well, here I am in my beautiful mansion and my kids aren’t here, my agents aren’t calling,” she said, adding. “I love my alone time like no one you’ve ever met.”

She returned to role of Sarah Connor in 2019, for T4. Now 67, she is about to join the cast of the final season of cult Netflix series Stranger Things.

While her ex-husband Cameron is working on a reboot of the Terminator franchise, Hamilton told Business Insider: “I'm done. I'm done. I have nothing more to say. The story's been told, and it's been done to death.”

Edward Furlong

Edward Furlong is unrecognisable in this recent picture
Edward Furlong is unrecognisable in this recent picture

The child star was just 13 when he shot to fame as John Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

He was a complete unknown who was spotted by casting director Mali Finn on a visit to Pasadena Boys and Girls Club.

He became a teen heart-throb overnight, but it was during filming that he first met married 26-year-old Jacqueline Domac who was his stand-in and then tutor. The pair later started a relationship, moved in together and Domac filed for divorce, although they maintained that the relationship was not sexual whilst Furlong was underage.

They stayed together until 1998, when Furlong was 21, and Domac later accused him of domestic abuse.

Furlong starred in several films during the late 90s and 2000s but was ditched from the third Terminator movie after bosses discovered his drug abuse.

He has had several stints in rehab over the years and his drug and alcohol abuse have blighted his relationships. He married actress Rachael Bella in 2006 and they had a son later that year.

She filed for divorce in 2009, and in 2012 alleged in court documents that their six-year-old son had tested positive for cocaine, with a  judge ruling Furlong’s parental visits had to be supervised.

In January 2013, he was arrested for domestic battery against his then-girlfriend, Dawson’s Creek star Monica Keena, and sentenced to 180 days in jail.

He was arrested again in 2017 for being under the influence of an illicit substance while trying to check into a hotel. Furlong was given a suspended sentence of 36 months on probation, provided he completed a six-month drug rehab. Now aged 46, he’s been sober ever since and he and Keena appear to have rekindled their friendship after being spotted out shopping together.

Kristanna Loken

Kristina had to gain 15ibs of muscles for the role
Kristina had to gain 15ibs of muscles for the role

The producers of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines reportedly auditioned 10,000 actresses before casting former model Kristanna Loken as the Terminatrix.

She was just 23 years old and followed a strict diet and training programme before filming to gain 15lb of muscle and strip her body fat to that of an Olympic athlete.

After Terminator she went on to star in PainkillerJane and married her co-star Noah Danby in 2008, but they split a year later and Loken said she was dating a woman.

The actress - who was previously spotted smooching with Pink at the 2003 World Music Awards - had been open about her bi-sexuality in the past, saying: "I have dated and have had sex with men and women and have to say that the relationships I have had with certain women have been much more fulfilling, sexually and emotionally, than those with certain men.”

Now aged 44, she has most recently been filming a thriller Dark Night of the Soul, playing a renowned scientist who holds the key to a cure for a prehistoric bacteria ravaging the world.

Claire Danes

Claire Danes has gone on to a stellar career
Claire Danes has gone on to a stellar career

Child star Danes had already made 13 films in five years by the time she put her acting career on hold aged 19 to attend Yale University.

She dropped out after two years to resume her acting career and was cast in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines as Kate Connor.

From 2011 to 2020, she starred as Carrie Mathieson in Homeland winning two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes for best actress in a drama series.

Married to actor Hugh Dancy, the couple have three children. Danes was banned from Philippines capital Manila after filming there in 1998.

In an interview with Premiere magazine, the star said: “It just f***ing smelled like cockroaches. There’s no sewage system. (We saw) people with like no arms, no legs, no eyes, no teeth…..Rats were everywhere.” She later apologised.

Michael Biehn

Michael Biehn played Sergeant Kyle Reese
Michael Biehn played Sergeant Kyle Reese

Biehn was cast in the role of Sergeant Kyle Reese, a soldier sent back in time by John Connor to rescue his mother Sarah.

He went on to star in future Cameron movies Aliens and The Abyss, but chose not to play the Hollywood fame game meaning he never achieved superstar status.

Biehn told the Hollywood Reporter "People always talk about me being an '80s star. I was not an '80s star. Bruce Willis was an ‘80s star. Tom Cruise was an '80s star. Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Mel Gibson. Those guys were making $20 million (£16million). I never even got $1 million. I kind of liked it that way."

Despite his career success, Biehn was struggling with alcoholism. In 2004, a Russian production company sued Biehn for his drunken behaviour on the set of The American. The lawsuit stated that the star was “excessively intoxicated, his speech slurred and erratic, and he had trouble walking.” 

Now sober, Biehn has reflected: “Drinking really has caused a lot of problems in my life. I’ve not only hurt myself, but I’ve hurt the people I care most about – my family, my parents, my children have all been affected by my alcoholism.”

He has five children from his three marriages and says he had always wanted to put his family first, turning down roles that meant he would be away from home for long periods of time.

Now aged 67, he has most recently been seen in the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian and in the horror series The Walking Dead.

Nick Stahl

Nick Stahl played the young John Connor in T3: Rise of the Machines
Nick Stahl played the young John Connor in T3: Rise of the Machines

After playing the young John Connor in T3: The Rise of the Machines, in 2003, Nick Stahl starred in a string of acclaimed movies including Twist, in which he played the Artful Dodger, and the 2005 hit Sin City.

But in May 2012 Rose Murphy, his wife of three years and mum to daughter Marlo, now 13, reported him missing and it was later reported the actor had checked into rehab.

A year later he was arrested in Los Angeles for alleged possession of methamphetamine.

He turned his back on Hollywood and moved to Texas to beat his addiction, returning to acting in 2019, to film The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson.

He has since starred in the TV series Let the Right One In and Tiny Beautiful Things. 

Paul Winfield

Paul Winfield sadly died in 2004
Paul Winfield sadly died in 2004

Already an Oscar nominated actor for the 1972 movie Sounder, Paul Winfiled took on the role of police lieutenant Ed Traxler in The Terminator.
He went on to star in Mars Attacks! In 1996 and numerous TV series, as well as voicing animated characters in shows such as The Magic School Bus and The Simpsons.

His partner of 30 years, architect  Charles Gillan died in 2002. Two years later Winfield, who battled obesity and diabetes, died of a heart attack at the age of 64.

Bess Motta 

Bess was a fitness instructor
Bess was a fitness instructor

In the original movie, Bess Motta played Ginger, Sarah Connor’s roommate who met a sticky end at the hands of the T-800. 

The actor and choreographer began her screen career as an aerobics instructor on the Canadian TV show 20 Minute Workout, which aired in 1983.

Since The Terminator, has starred in the 1987 film You Talkin' to Me? and the TV show New Monkeys, as well as various stage productions.

Most recently she appeared in the 2017 TV show K.C.Undercover alongside Zendaya.

She still promotes fitness on her social media channels.

Amanda Killelea

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