James Cameron

James Cameron (born 1954) is a Canadian movie director, screenwriter and producer. He is one of the most commercially successful movie directors of all time. His movies "Titanic" (1997) and "Avatar" (2009) were the #2 and #1 highest grossing movies ever, until this year, when "Avengers: Endgame" (directed by Joe & Anthony Russo) took over the #1 spot. He is known for his special effects and for his technologically advanced underwater filming. Cameron has won three Academy Awards, all for "Titanic." Cameron's movies often feature strong female characters.

Cameron co-wrote the script for the sci-fi film, "Terminator" (1984) and went on to direct it as well. The movie was a huge success and helped to land him the job of director for "Aliens" (1986), a sequel to the 1979 movie, "Alien," directed by Ridley Scott. Like "Terminator" before it, "Aliens" was a huge success and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning three.

After "Aliens" Cameron wrote and directed "The Abyss" (1989), another sci-fi movie, but one which required much filming to be done underwater. Cameron honed his underwater filming skills on this movie and developed techniques that would serve him well on his later film, "Titanic." "The Abyss" was not as big a hit as his other movies, but it's an under-appreciated gem.

After "The Abyss" Cameron directed "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991) and "True Lies" (1994). These very successful movies further cemented Cameron's reputation as a master of special effects and a pioneer in CGI (computer generated imagery).

The 1997 movie "Titanic" was written, directed and co-produced by Cameron. It was an expensive film to produce, but it ended up being the highest grossing movie of all time, and stayed at #1 until Cameron's own movie "Avatar" took the top spot in 2009. "Titanic" was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, winning 11. Cameron himself won three of them, for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Film Editing.

"Avatar" (2009) was the world's most commercially successful film (until this year, 2019). It uses state-of-the-art CGI, and is a spectacular film to see in 3-D. Cameron has been working on four sequels to "Avatar," the first of which recently came out in 2022. There is now an "Avatar" attraction, called Pandora - The World of Avatar, which opened in 2017, at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida, U.S.A.

* The plot of "Avatar" is loosely based on the Pocahontas story.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger has appeared in three James Cameron movies, "Terminator," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "True Lies." Actress Sigourney Weaver has also appeared in three: "Aliens," "Avatar" and the upcoming sequel "Avatar: the Way of Water."
* James Cameron was married (from 1989-1991) to movie director Kathryn Bigelow. She won the Academy Award for Best Director for "The Hurt Locker" in 2009, the same year that Cameron was nominated for Best Director of "Avatar."
* James Cameron was married (from 1997 to 1999) to Linda Hamilton, the lead actress in "Terminator" and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." He is currently married to actress Suzy Amis (2000 to present), who appeared in "Titanic."
* There are scenes of the actual Titanic ship in the movie "Titanic." Cameron and his film crew made incredibly high risk submarine dives to film the actual ship for the movie.

Avatar: The Way of Water has finally been released! (2022)

Several of James Cameron's movies are available in the Tsurumi University Library.

[My personal thoughts and recollections about James Cameron and his movies were supplemented with details, dates and numbers from Wikipedia. - Kevin] 

James Cameron Biographies:
Wikipedia
IMDb
Biography.com

Links to trailers and clips of some of James Cameron's movies:
Terminator (1984) - trailer
Aliens (1986) - trailer
The Abyss (1989) - trailer
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) - trailer
True Lies (1994) - trailer
Titanic (1997) -trailer
    Titanic - "I'm flying!" clip with Leorado DiCaprio and Kate Winslet
Avatar (2009) -trailer
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) trailer