LOS ANGELES • Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger said last Friday that he has had heart surgery, but is feeling "fantastic".

"I have a new aortic valve to go along with my new pulmonary valve from my last surgery. I feel fantastic and have already been walking the streets of Cleveland," the Terminator actor and former California governor tweeted.

Schwarzenegger, 73, posted a picture of himself giving a thumbs-up from his hospital bed at the Cleveland Clinic, and thanked medical staff there.

The actor, who was born with a heart defect, had emergency open-heart surgery in 2018 to replace a pulmonary valve.

Schwarzenegger became one of the world's best-known action movie stars in the 1980s, with films including Conan The Barbarian (1982) and The Terminator (1984), and comedies such as Twins (1988).

In 2003, he was elected governor of California and championed environmental policies.

After ending his term in 2011, he returned to movies, appearing in The Expendables 2 (2012), as well as sequels to The Terminator.

REUTERS