James Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker, known for directing epic, high-budget action films. He got his start working in special effects departments on films before transitioning to making his own films. His films have been exceptionally lucrative and successful at the box office throughout his career. Since starting to make films, he has also become an active environmentalist.
Born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, Cameron moved with his family to California when he was 17. After dropping out of college, he taught himself about special effects, and was inspired to work in the film world after seeing George Lucas' Star Wars in 1977. He was an assistant on several films, before beginning work designing miniatures for Roger Corman's Studios. Next, he worked as the special effects director on Piranha and Piranha II. Cameron's first film as director was The Terminator, which he also wrote. He then wrote the sequel to Alien (Aliens), which was a huge success and earned numerous award nominations. In 1989, he directed and wrote The Abyss.
In the 1990s, Cameron directed Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies, both starring Arnold Schwartzenegger, as well as co-writing Strange Days with Kathryn Bigelow. His biggest breakthrough came with Titanic in 1997, which Cameron directed and wrote. The film was a romance that took place on the doomed voyage of the RMS Titanic in 1912, and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It was a smash success, holding the number 1 box office spot for months, and won 11 Academy Awards.
After Titanic, Cameron directed Dark Angel for television, and then a number of documentaries in the early 2000s. In 2009, he directed Avatar, a science fiction epic that had a budget of over 300 million dollars. The film broke many box office records and was nominated for 9 Academy Awards. He has since announced plans to release 3 sequels to Avatar.
Aliens (1986) is James Cameron's follow-up to Ridley Scott's classic Alien (1976). It tells the story of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley, who is rescued by a team after being in hypersleep for over 50 years. After, Ripley is tasked with helping marines...
Avatar is a science-fiction movie directed and produced by James Cameron, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was released on December 10, 2009. The film is set in the middle of the 22nd century, and follows the colonization of Pandora, a moon...
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (released in 1991 and called T2 for short) is one of the few cases in film history where a sequel is considered better than the original film (in this case, 1984's The Terminator). Directed and co-written once again by...
At the time of its release, James Cameron's Titanic was the most expensive film production ever mounted, and widely expected to be a critical and commercial failure. Negative rumors about the film began to swirl after the film's production, which...
