Arnie's 'abusive' father would get drunk and beat his kids

The 76-year-old action legend has spoken out about his difficult relationship with his strict chief of police father, Gustav, who would blow "hot and cold" with him and his brother Meinhard.

In the tome, he recalled: "I grew up in a small village in Austria at the beginning of the Cold War.

"My mother was very loving. My father was strict, and he could be physically abusive, but I loved him very much. It was complicated.

"My father had a hot-and-cold-shower kind of a treatment.

"When he was drunk, he was not forthcoming with his emotions. He was angry. And when he was not - two, three days later, he would maybe feel guilty and buy us ice cream and take us out, hugging, kissing and all that stuff."