James Cameron Biography
James Cameron’s genius approach to film production and screen writing have certainly put him a step ahead of other producers in the industry, his ability to come up with state of the art inventions coupled with a willingness to go to the extreme heights to see their visual results in film has led to respected works like Terminator sequels, Avatar, Titanic, and Piranha II.
Cameron was originally named James Francis Cameron after he was born on August 16 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, as a child to Phillip Cameron and Shirley Lowe he grew up in a fairly comfortable home although at times he was forced to take up odd jobs to supplement the family’s income. Cameron was educated at the Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls, Ontario before continuing at the Fullerton College in Brea, California for a major in Physics although he did not graduate.
He was always fascinated by the sciences and often he would engage in a shared interest of the arts where writing was his favourite pastime, Cameron would watch films on television with an intensity that struck his family and friends. Although many assumed that it was a normal child’s interest in films Cameron was more drawn to how the whole process had been put together to achieve the images he was seeing, he would often criticise the filming outcome and said to himself that one day he would also get behind the camera and perfect the art of directing.
Throughout high school Cameron studied and mastered most of the technicalities of a video camera, this provided an inspiration to pursue Physics in college, he was however not patient enough to sit through the entire academic period so he got a job to finance the acquisition of the basic filming equipment and in 1977 he was in business.
Cameron’s first professional stint in film production was with a script he had written, he later advanced to the 1980 film titled Beyond the Stars and then to New York and Galaxy of Terror both in 1981. Although a fairly new entrant into the business Cameron was quickly respected for possessing the skills of an art director as well as being efficient with the filming equipment.
The biggest gig came in 1981 when an initial consulting job was to later be a directing role for the popular film Piranha II: The Spawning, after the premiere Cameron shot to the top lists of producers’ right behind his hero Steven Spielberg.
Other successful productions by Cameron include The Terminator in 1984 the film grossed ten times more from worldwide sales than the initial cost for making it. In 1985 he was credited with the film Rambo: First Blood Part II then Aliens in 1986, this was followed by Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1999 and T2 3-D: Battle Across Time in 1996.
In 1997 Cameron was back again with a hit film titled Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, he was also highly awarded for the 2009 sci-film named Avatar. Both films have gone to film records for being the highest grossing productions of all time.
With a booked out diary Cameron is expected back with Sanctum in 2011, At the Mountains of Madness in 2010, Fantastic Voyage in 2013, Avatar 2 in 2014, and Avatar 3 in 2015.
Cameron drew his inspiration from names in film production like Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott.
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