Stay Hungry

Stay Hungry is a 1976 American comedy-drama film by director Bob Rafelson from a screenplay by Charles Gaines (adapted from his 1972 novel of the same name). The story centers on a young Birmingham scion, played by Jeff Bridges, who gets involved in a shady real-estate deal.In order to close the deal, he needs to buy a gym building to complete a multi-parcel lot.When he visits the gym, however, he finds himself romantically interested in the receptionist (Sally Field) and drawn to the carefree lifestyle of the Austrian body builder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is training there for the Mr. Universe competition. Schwarzenegger won a Golden Globe for "Best Acting Debut in a Motion Picture" for his portrayal of Joe Santo: technically, it was not his debut role, since he had played Hercules (as "Arnold Strong") in the 1969 film Hercules in New York, a gangster's henchman in Robert Altman's 1973 film The Long Goodbye and a masseur in the 1974 television film Happy Anniversary and Goodbye.