B: August 16, 1954 in Kapuskasing, Ontario
James Francis Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, but grew up in Chippawa, a small town just outside of Niagara Falls, Ontario. His father Phillip Cameron, was an electrical engineer and his mother, Shirley Cameron was an artist. Due to his father’s career the family moved to Orange County. Cameron went to California State University at Fullerton to study physics. Although he got good marks, he came to the realization that science was not for him, and so he switched his major to English. But he dreamed of being involved in filmmaking, a dream that had started as a young boy when he saw 2001: A Space Odyssey. Finally surrendering to his dreams, he dropped out of school and took a series of menial jobs including working in a machine shop, being a truck driver, a school bus driver, and painting pictures, which allowed him to write the stories he wanted to write. After toying with making his own short films, he landed a job as a miniature model maker for the Roger Corman Studios. Making fast, low-budget productions, he learned how to make films efficiently and effectively. Soon he was working as an art director on the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars in 1980, and he did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenter’s Escape from New York in 1981. He has become one of the most successful producer-directors ever. His futuristic feature Avatar earned more than $2.7 billion at the box office and is the bestselling Blu-ray disc of all time. Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5 are planned for production and release beginning in 2010. His older films, including Titanic, have earned more than a combined $3 billion. Pandora: The World of Avatar opened as a theme park that in May of 2017 as part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida. In 2018 he hosted a series on AMC titled James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction.
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