James Francis Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing,
Ontario, Canada. He moved to the United States in 1971. The son of an
engineer, he majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, and eventually dropping out.
He then drove a truck to support his screenwriting ambition.
He landed his first professional film job as art director,
miniature-set builder, and process-projection supervisor on
Roger Corman's
Sador: Herrscher im Weltraum (1980)
and had his first experience as a director with a two week stint on
Fliegende Killer - Piranha II (1982)
before being fired.
He then wrote and directed
Terminator (1984), a
futuristic action-thriller starring
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Michael Biehn and
Linda Hamilton. It was a low budget independent film, but Cameron's superb, dynamic direction made it a surprise mainstream success and it is now regarded as one of the most iconic pictures of the 1980s. After this came a string of successful, bigger budget science-fiction action
films such as Aliens: Die Rückkehr (1986),
Abyss - Abgrund des Todes (1989) and
Terminator 2: Tag der Abrechnung (1991).
In 1990, Cameron formed his own production company, Lightstorm
Entertainment. In 1997, he wrote and directed
Titanic (1997), a romance epic about two
young lovers from different social classes who meet on board the famous ship. The
movie went on to break all box office records and earned eleven Academy
Awards. It became the highest grossing movie of all time until 12 years later,
Avatar - Aufbruch nach Pandora (2009), which invented and pioneered 3D film
technology, and it went on to beat "Titanic", and
became the first film to cost two billion dollars
until 2019 when Marvel took the record.
James Cameron is now one of the most sought-after directors in
Hollywood. He was formerly married to producer
Gale Anne Hurd, who produced several of
his films. In 2000, he married actress
Suzy Amis, who appeared in Titanic, and they
have three children.
