James Cameron Biography by FilmMakers Magazine

The Terminator received international acclaim and recognition appearing in Time magazine's Top Ten best list, grossing over $80 million worldwide. This movie did not only score a huge financial victory and firmly established Cameron's reputation as both a screenwriter and director of undeniable talent, but it launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's career as well.

After The Terminator Cameron was asked to direct the second Aliens movie of which he had already written the script in a three-month period. Cameron demanded that Gale Anne Hurd be brought on board as a producer. Before shooting Aliens James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd became involved both professionally and romantically and after a short courtship were wed.

The movie, Aliens was well received by the audience and critics alike with its riveting special effects, a well-written script, and an Oscar worthy performance from Sigourney Weaver. The movie received seven Academy Award nominations, winning the Oscar for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Effects. The film became the most successful R-rated film ever, grossing approximately $180 million worldwide. Rambo 2 grossed over $250 million globally, making it an international mega-hit.

Instead of settling for the all mighty dollar deals to direct other people's stories, Cameron decided to put all of his talents into his own work, The Abyss (1989) was born.

A buzz began to circulate around Hollywood concerning this up and coming director. Everybody who was anybody wanted to befriend and work alongside Cameron on his next project. However, instead of settling for the all mighty dollar deals to direct other people's stories, Cameron decided to put all of his talents into his own work, The Abyss (1989) was born.

The Abyss would later set new standards for underwater shooting. The crew along with Cameron had to design and create most of the gear worn by the actors, which was no small feat. Furthermore, the entire movie was exhaustingly time-consuming and expensive and post-production ended up delayed because of some of the difficult effects shots that were to be in the movie, which were later edited out. The film took 18 months to complete.

The movie received four Academy Award nominations, winning an Oscar for the Best Visual Effects and grossing $110 million worldwide. Even though Cameron was getting the opportunity to excel even further professionally, his personal life was yet again paying the price. Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd were departing ways during the production and ended up divorcing right after the movie was finished.

Cameron went on to produce the very successful movie and now TBS "Movies for Guys who like movies" classic, Point Break (1991). Kathryn Bigelow, whom Cameron married that very same year the movie was released, directed the movie. Point Break made over $100 million worldwide and topped the video rental charts for five weeks straight.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day budget spiraled out of control and became the most expensive movie of all time but it was also the most profitable movie James Cameron has worked on, grossing $500 million.

His involvement with Point Break give birth to the famous morphing effect Cameron would use to create the liquid metal T-1000 for his next mega project, the hugely profitable Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Cameron capitalized on the success of T-1000 by launching his own special effects company, Digital Domain, in collaboration with effects wizard Stan Winston and corporate giant IBM.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day budget spiraled out of control and became the most expensive movie of all time but it was also the most profitable movie James Cameron has worked on, grossing $500 million. During this time he divorced his wife Kathryn Bigelow and got hooked up with Linda Hamilton, the female star from the terminator-movies. He also formed his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, and inked an exclusive deal with Fox to finance his next three movies but he exceeded the limit of Fox's funding on each of his next two-films.

"T2" received six Academy Award nominations, bringing home four in Best Makeup, Sound, Visual Effects and Sound Effects Editing. It also received the Ray Bradbury Award for Dramatic Screenwriting, five Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science Fiction, six MTV Movie Awards, and the People's Choice Award.

As a result of their union, Linda Hamilton gave birth to a baby girl, Josephine Archer in 1984. During this time period Cameron wrote, produced and directed the action-comedy True Lies, America's version of the James Bond icon, which grossed a cool $365 million in worldwide box office. The following year, while he was in pre-production of his next movie, Titanic, Lightstorm Entertainment presented Strange Days, directed by Kathryn Bigelow from a screenplay by James Cameron and Jay Cocks. Unfortunately, it didn't become the great success it deserved.

The most recognizable and successful piece of film work Cameron has ever worked on is the retold story of Titanic. Cameron spent most of his time at the bottom of the Atlantic to see the Titanic's wreckage, visiting it a total of twelve times.

"It was sort of like going to Mecca first, and getting religion. We went there with very specific objectives, and I took two things away from the experience," explained Cameron, "Working around the wreck for so much time, you get such a strong sense of the profound sadness and injustice of it, and the message of it. You think 'There probably aren't going to be many filmmakers who go to Titanic. There may never be another one-maybe a documentarian.' So it sort of becomes a great mantle of responsibility to convey the emotional message of it-to do that part of it right, too."

Taking charge of the responsibility, Cameron cast a spectacular cast; many of their features resembled the real life crew. Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were cast as the leading roles, which the story plot revolved around the love of the two.

Cameron served as director, producer, and editor on the film and due to the film's production, $200 million, tremendously exceeding its budget; Cameron forfeited his fees except the $1.5 million received for the screenplay. Titanic opened in the US on December 19, 1997 and took in approximately $25.5 million in its first weekend. The movie quickly replaced George Lucas's Star Wars as the top-grossing film of all time, grossing more than a billion dollars worldwide. Furthermore the movie later won eleven Oscars tying it with the unforgettable movie Ben Hurr. , It won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. Cameron truly became "King of the World."

When asked about becoming a film director by inspiring directors, Cameron is prepared. "I tell them that no two people will ever do it the same way, and there is nothing I can say that will help you. Whatever your talents are, whatever your strengths and weaknesses, you have to find the path that's going to work for you. The film industry is about saying 'no' to people, and inherently you cannot take 'no' for an answer."

He has written the screenplay of Spider-Man and is working on Avatar, a science-fiction film that will revolutionize filmmaking. He plans to cast with non-human, digitally generated actors. Even though James Cameron has been nominated for and won countless awards he still strives to be a director truly committed to his work as only a perfectionist could. Perhaps that is the reason why he is so renowned globally for he can create new genres of films and stretch our imagination to places where we have never gone before.