After 15 Years, Schwarzenegger Tells ICM: ‘I Won’t Be Back’

Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of Hollywood’s highest-paid stars and one of the world’s top action heroes, has left his longtime agent, Lou Pitt at International Creative Management. He had been with the agency for 15 years.

Sources suggest that Schwarzenegger--whose last movie, “Jingle All the Way,” was a box-office disappointment--is at a crossroads in his career. Schwarzenegger earns $20 million a movie against 20% of the gross.

Like other aging action stars, including Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal, Schwarzenegger, who is about to turn 50, is confronting the fact that younger audiences tend to favor stars of their own generation such as Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt.

Stallone recently left William Morris Agency after one year to rejoin Creative Artists Agency.

For weeks, Schwarzenegger has been meeting with other agencies, including William Morris, in anticipation of changing representation.

He had told ICM about those discussions and Monday his attorney, Jake Bloom, sent a letter to the agency advising him that Schwarzenegger was no longer a client.

Pitt had no comment Tuesday other than to say: “It’s been an exciting and fulfilling 15 years. We have enjoyed great success together. Arnold remains a valued friend, and we wish him all the best.”

Schwarzenegger hired Pitt in 1982, the year he had his first starring role in a movie, “Conan the Barbarian.”

The financial loss of a star as big as Schwarzenegger, one of the highest-paid actors in the world, is significant to a talent agency, which normally receives 10% of a client’s fee on every project.