📍Chippawa, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada
1954 – 1971“James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, in August 1954 and grew up in Chippawa, a historic village on the Niagara River just above the falls, now part of the city of Niagara Falls. His father, Phillip, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Shirley, an artist and nurse, and he grew up the eldest of five children. He has said that Chippawa is where his view of the world was shaped, with discipline from his engineer father and an artistic side from his mother. He was an inventive, curious boy who built things constantly: rafts, rockets, trebuchets and a homemade diving bell for mice. He spent endless hours swimming and exploring in the river, surrounded by water and fascinated by what lay beneath the surface, and he read science fiction voraciously, including on the bus to Stamford Collegiate in Niagara Falls. He drew and painted constantly, and in 1968, seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey in Toronto, he became determined to make films himself, borrowing his father's camera to experiment. In 1971, when he was seventeen, the family moved to Brea, in Orange County, California. He studied physics and English at a community college, worked as a truck driver, and taught himself special effects. The Terminator in 1984 launched his career, followed by Aliens, Titanic, for which he won three Oscars, and the Avatar films. He has also explored the deepest parts of the ocean, a lifelong passion born in the river at Chippawa, and in 1998 he returned to visit his boyhood home.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today