Although interested in science at school, it was during a biology lesson that he wrote a short story that would later become the basis for the film "The Abyss". The family moved to Orange Country, California and Cameron was excited to be "so near" Hollywood. He enrolled in California State University where he majored in Physics, hoping to be a marine biologist or physicist. Soon after he decided that the course  did not suit him and swapped his major to English literature but he decided that he still wasn't happy and dropped out of the university, taking on a variety of jobs to fund himself whilst he wrote at night.

The next defining moment in Cameron's life came in 1977 when he saw "Star Wars" for the first time, it was a move in the style that he had wanted to make since seeing "2001: A Space Odyssey" all those years before. Cameron managed to get a job working as a miniature model builder for Roger Corman studios, known for is low budget films made on a tight schedule. Cameron soon made a impact and began progressing through the ranks becoming Art Director on the 1980 movie "Battle Beyond the Stars" and was Production Designer and 2nd Unit Director on the critically acclaimed "Galaxy of Terror" in 1981.

Cameron's directing debut came with the low budget, and frankly awful film "Piranha II: The Spawning". The film was never really destined to be any good and hit problems right from the start. Cameron was so upset with the final version of the film that he broke into the editing studio and completely re-cut the movie to his liking, a fact that didn't go down very well with the film's producer.

It was during this stressful period that Cameron began to have a recurring nightmare about an invisible robot sent from the future to kill him and it was this idea that was to form the basis of the film "Terminator". Whilst waiting to get financial backing for "Terminator", Cameron took on two script writing jobs namely for "Aliens" and "Rambo Firstblood Part 2". In order to get the financial backing necessary, Cameron had to sell the script for "Terminator" for the nominal fee of $1 on the condition that he could direct and make the movie his way.

The low budget "Terminator" (1984)  (it cost less than $6.5 million) was an instant hit with critics and fans and went on to gross over $80 million worldwide and it really put Cameron on the map in terms of his directing and screenwriting skills. Off the back of the success of "Terminator" Cameron was asked to direct his script of "Aliens" (1986) and it was during this period that Cameron married the films Executive Producer Gale Anne Hurd. The film was a success and received seven Academy Award nominations, winning two for "Best Visual Effects" and "Best Sound Effects".

Cameron then began work on "The Abyss" (1989), the film took eighteen months to complete and most of the equipment used by the stars and crew had to be especially designed and made for the film. The filming was success but the tight schedule put a terrible strain on Cameron's marriage and soon after filming was completed he and his wife were divorced. The film garnered four Academy Award nominations, winning one for "Best Visual Effects" and grossed over $110 million worldwide.

Cameron then produced "Point Break" (1991) where he met his second wife Kathryn Bigelow (who directed the movie), at this time he also launched his own special effects company in collaboration with Stan Winston (who created the creature effects on "Aliens") and began work on "Terminator Two: Judgment Day" (1991) however he and Bigelow soon split and Cameron became romantically involved with the star of "Terminator", Linda Hamilton with whom he has a daughter. Cameron then followed up with the James Bond style "True Lies" (1994) which he wrote, produced and directed. The film was a massive hit and grossed $365 million worldwide.

Pre-production on "Titanic" (1997) began in 1995 with Cameron spending most of his time at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean filming the wreckage of the ship. Due to the spiraling cost of the movie (more than $200 million), Cameron had to forgo his usual directing fees but kept the $1.5 million he was paid for the script. The film won eleven Academy Awards including "Best Picture" and "Best Director" and grossed over $1 billion worldwide, overtaking "Star Wars" as the highest grossing movie of all time.

Recent projects include the short-lived television series "Dark Angel" and pre-production on a computer generated moved entitled "Avatar". With so many successful films under his belt, James "Iron Jim" Cameron is truly the "King of the World", at least in the movie sense.

Works Cited and Consulted

International Movie Database
Yahoo! Movies
Filmmakers.com