The Director of the highest-grossing film to date, and technology pioneer, James Cameron has been the subject of unparalleled attention since the release of Avatar at the end of 2009. From Terminator, to Alien, to Titanic, the director has challenged himself to new and formidable heights.

 

James Francis Cameron was born in Ontario, Canada in 1954, the son of an artist and electrical engineer. Cameron was naturally drawn to science books, reading a staggering pile since childhood. At the age of 14, Cameron watched "2001, A Space Odyssey" by director Stanley Kubrick more than a dozen times. The film sparked the earliest dream in Cameron of shooting sci-fi flicks.

Cameron entered California State University as a physics major soon after high school, but soon dropped out. After seeing the original Star Wars film in 1977, Cameron quit his job as a truck driver to enter the film industry. He started as a miniature model maker at Roger Corman Studios. Making quickly-produced low-budget films taught Cameron to work efficiently and effectively. He quickly moved up to become an art director on the 1980 sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars. He worked on special effects design and direction on John Carpenter's Escape from New York in 1981, acted as production designer on Galaxy of Terror in 1981, and consulted on the design of Android in 1982.

Cameron was given his first directorial job in Piranha 2: The Spawning in 1981. The film was to be produced in Jamaica, but when Cameron arrived at the studio, he discovered his crew comprised primarily of Italians who spoke no English and the project was under-financed. Under duress, Cameron says he had a nightmare about an invincible robot hitman sent from the future to kill him. This gave him the idea for the Terminator, which would later catapult his filming career.

After completing a screenplay for the Terminator, Cameron sold it for one dollar to producer Gale Anne Hurd, on the condition that Cameron direct the film.