Over the course of his long career, the Canadian director, screenwriter and producer has been involved in some of the biggest hit films in the USA in recent decades. He celebrated his international breakthrough in 1982 as the author of the science fiction story “Terminator” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. James Cameron succeeded in staging visionary stories that appealed to the audience in a credible and entertaining way. He earned an international reputation in particular for new camera work and virtual effects. With “Titanic” in 1997 he produced the most successful film in history ($1.8 billion). He surpassed this success in 2009 with “Avatar” (2.7 billion dollars). Other notable works include “Aliens II”, “Rambo II” and “True Lies”…
James Cameron was born on August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada.
Cameron grew up in Niagara Falls. His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was a painter. In 1971 he moved to Brea, California, to study physics at Fullerton College. He also worked as a machinist and truck driver. It wasn’t until 16 years later that Cameron came up with the idea of making his first film. His first short film was made, in which he did almost everything himself. He was a producer, director, co-writer, editor, miniaturist, cinematographer and special effects supervisor. His work brought him to Roger Corman’s New World Pictures film company, where he worked on the film Sador. Cameron’s career goal was director. He quickly worked his way up the ranks at New World Pictures and was soon writing his first script. In 1982, Cameron made his breakthrough when he wrote the action thriller “Terminator”.
It took two years before he got the financing for the film together. With the strip he immediately landed his first world hit. The film, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, grossed over $80 million worldwide. In the meantime, two more screenplays had been written. Cameron had written Rambo II with Sylvester Stallone and then he had set to work on Aliens. Both films became mega sellers again, with “Rambo II” alone bringing in over 250 million dollars at the box office. Cameron’s film Aliens received seven Oscar nominations, including one for Best Female Lead for Sigourney Weaver. The strip was awarded for “Best Visual Effects” and “Best Sound Effects”. James Cameron provided another optical treat with the strip “Abyss”, in which he set new standards in terms of visual effects. This work was rewarded with an “Oscar” and “Abyss” grossed over 110 million dollars.
In 1989, after divorcing his wife, producer Gale Anne Hurde, Cameron married director Kathryn Bigelow. Other film projects followed, including Dangerous Surfers and 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The computer animations in ‘Terminator 2’ were of unprecedented perfection, and Cameron’s film was nominated for six Oscars : he won the coveted statue in the categories “Best Makeup”, “Sound”, “Visual Effects” and “Sound Effects Editing”. The film grossed $500 million at the box office alone, plus nearly $1 billion in ancillary merchandising and marketing revenues. The flick also received other accolades, including five Saturn Awards from the Academy Of Science Fiction, Fantasy And Horror and six MTV Movie Awards. In 1994, Cameron directed the action comedy True Lies, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.
After James Cameron served as producer on “Strange Days,” he shot “Titanic” in 1997, which was the highest-grossing film of all time up to that point. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, who became superstars through the strip, starred in the lead roles. In 1997 he married Linda Hamilton, the lead actress in his Terminator films, after his previous wife divorced in 1991. James Cameron acted in the comedy “The Muse”, which was released in German cinemas in 1999. In 2000 he married Suzy Amis for the fifth time. The productions “Ghosts of the Abyss” and “Aliens of the Deep” followed in 2003 and 2005. From 2007 he produced the 3D film “Avatar – Aufbruch nach Pandora” for 237 million dollars. With a profit of over 2.7 billion dollars from the first exploitation, “Avatar” became the most economically successful film in the world. In 2019 he produced and wrote “Terminator: Dark Fate”.
Filmography
1978 – Xenogenesis
1981 – Flying Killers – Piranha
1982 – Planet of Terror
1984 – Terminators
1984 – Rambo II – The Order
1986 – Aliens – The Return
1989 – Abyss
1991 – Dangerous surf
1991 – Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1994 – True Lies
1995 – Strange Days
1996 – Terminator 2 3D – Battles Across Time
1997 – Titanics
1999 – The Muse
2002 – Dark Angel (series finale)
2002 – Expedition: Bismarck
2003 – Ghosts of the Abyss
2005 – Aliens of the Deep
Why is James Cameron so famous?
James Cameron, (born August 16, 1954, Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada), Canadian filmmaker known for his expansive vision and innovative special-effects films, most notably Titanic (1997), for which he won an Academy Award for best director, and Avatar (2009).
Did James Cameron go to the Titanic?
“I was working in what was not known.” In 2005, while visiting Titanic, Cameron says he saw the real Straus Suite, which “looked just like the fake set that we got built.”
What did James Cameron invent for Avatar?
One major advance with Avatar’s setup was the creation of a virtual monitor that allowed the director to see the motion capture results in real-time, as they were filmed, instead of waiting for the computer to render the images.
Is James Cameron a scientist?
James Francis Cameron CC (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker and environmentalist. Best known for making science fiction and epic films, he first gained recognition for directing The Terminator (1984).