James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing Ontario Canada on August 16 1954 He moved to the USA in 1971 The son of an engineer he majored in physics at California State University but after graduating drove a truck to support his screenwriting ambition He landed his first professional film job as art director miniatureset builder and processprojection supervisor on Roger Cormans Battle Beyond the Stars 1980 and debuted as a director with Piranha Part Two The Spawning 1981 the following year In 1984 he wrote and directed The Terminator 1984 a futuristic actionthriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton It was a huge success After this came a string of successful sciencefiction action films such as Aliens 1986 and Terminator 2 Judgment Day 1991 Cameron is now one of the most soughtafter directors in Hollywood He was formerly married to producer Gale Anne Hurd who produced several of his films He married Kathryn Bigelow in 1989