Thrive: 30 Inspirational Rags-to-Riches Stories

James Cameron

James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. His father was an engineer at a power plant and his mother was an artist, nurse, and homemaker. James grew up in Chippawa, Ontario, and attended the Stamford Collegiate School in Niagara Falls, Ontario, before moving to Brea, California with his family when he was seventeen years old. From an early age, James was fascinated with movies, especially science fiction. In high school, he wrote many sci-fi stories. The dream of becoming a director, though, seemed unrealistic. He attended Fullerton College, a two-year community college, to study physics, which he later switched to English before dropping out, against his father's wishes. To make ends meet, James worked as a janitor, truck driver, machinist, and as a gas station attendant. At night, he often wrote and painted.

After watching Star Wars (1977) in theatres, James was inspired and quit his jobs, at twenty-four years old, to pursue his dream of being in the film industry. He taught himself special effects by reading books at his college's library. He wrote a ten-minute science fiction movie script with a couple of friends, entitled Xenogenesis (1978). They raised money, rented a camera, lenses, and studio, and filmed it. They dismantled the camera to understand how it operated and spent the first half-day of the shoot trying to get it running. James was the film's writer, director, producer, and production designer.

While educating himself on film-making techniques, James showed Xenogenesis (1978) to Chuck Comisky, then-head of special effects for New World Pictures (Roger Corman's independent film studio), who offered him a job on the spot as a miniature-model maker. Within three weeks, James had his own department. He developed a reputation as someone who got things done, as he often slept in the office because he worked so late. James also knew he had to create his own opportunities and asked Corman directly for promotions. Within a matter of weeks, James made his way from model maker to art director for the sci-fi movie Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). He also did special effects work design and direction on John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981), production design on Galaxy of Terror (1981), and consultant work on the design of Android (1982). Making rapidly-produced, low-budget productions under Roger Corman taught James how to work efficiently and effectively.

James was hired as the special effects director for the sequel to Piranha (1978), entitled Piranha II: The Spawning (1981). However, after the original director for the film left due to creative differences, the film's producer gave James his first job as overall director. James didn't know, however, the producer was using American directors in order to secure funding from a small label at Warner Bros. As it turned out, the producer wanted the director's chair, whether it was official or not.

On location, production slowed due to numerous problems and adverse weather. James was fired as director just a couple of weeks into filming. The producer would not even allow James to review his own footage. James was told his shots weren't good, which bothered him more than getting fired. For the first time, James questioned his own talents. He questioned whether a career in film was right for him, all because of another man's opinion. Although he was fired, the producer kept James's name as director to secure funding. He knew James was broke and could not afford an attorney to have his name removed from the film. James flew to Rome a couple of months later to find out what really happened. The producer, once again, refused to show James his shots from the film. However, James found a way in and took a look at the film for himself. He realized his shots were fine and made just a few edits to the film before leaving.

While in Rome, James fell sick with a high fever and had a nightmare in his hotel room about a red-eyed, metal endoskeleton dragging itself out of a fire. He awoke inspired, drawing the robot he saw so vividly in his mind. At twenty-seven years old, James returned to Los Angeles and showed his sketches to Gale Anne Hurd, Corman's assistant, who became interested in the film. James enlisted his friend, Bill Wisher, to create an actual movie script.

After completing the screenplay for The Terminator (1984), James showed the script to his agent, who thought it was a lousy idea. In response, James fired him. He agreed to sell the production rights to Hurd for $1, with the promise that she only produce the film if James directed it. The two then shopped around the movie script. Although many of the production companies were interested, they were unwilling to let an inexperienced film director make the movie. One film distribution company, Orion Pictures, agreed to distribute the film if they could get the funding elsewhere. They eventually found a small production company, Hemdale Pictures, which was willing to let James direct.

James took a couple of writing jobs while waiting for Arnold Schwarzenegger to become available. James ultimately convinced Arnold to take the role as The Terminator after sending Arnold a painting depicting him as the human cyborg assassin. Hurd signed on as producer, and James finally got his first break as director. With a budget of $6.4 million, The Terminator (1984) was a smash hit at the box office, grossing $78 million worldwide. James became a major Hollywood director, with Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009) as the two highest-grossing films of all time, at $2.19 billion and $2.78 billion respectively.