James Cameron Biography

A self-made giant of Hollywood, Canadian-born James Cameron went from set-builder to art director (for 1981’s Escape From New York) to writer and then director of some of the biggest movies of his era, including Titanic and the Avatar films.

James Cameron first broke through to fame when he directed Arnold Schwarzenegger in the actor’s career-making role in The Terminator (1984). Schwarzenegger played a creepy cyborg assassin, sent back from the future to kill the mother of the unborn son who will save humanity decades later. Years later, Cameron and Schwarzenegger teamed up again for the smashingly successful sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

Cameron also directed Sigourney Weaver in the box office hit Aliens (1986) and Ed Harris in the gripping underwater drama The Abyss (1989). Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, took Cameron to new heights: it broke box office records and won 11 Oscars, including awards for best picture and best director.

After the success of Titanic, Cameron worked on a variety of non-feature projects, including the TV series Dark Angel (2000-02, starring Jessica Alba) and documentaries based on his love of diving and the ocean, including Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005).

After 12 years away from feature films, he made a spectacular return in 2009 with the effects-heavy sci-fi epic Avatar. The film was nominated for an Oscar as best film (eventually losing out to The Hurt Locker), and in only its second month of release surpassed Titanic as the highest-grossing movie of all time.

In 2022, Cameron returned with Avatar: The Way of Water. After just a few months of release, it zoomed past the $2 billion mark in global box office grosses. Cameron has announced three more sequels in the Avatar series, to be released throughout the 2020s.