Cameron Crowe Biography

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CAMERON CROWE (Writer / Director / Producer) was born on July 13, 1957 in Palm Springs, California. He was raised in San Diego by his father, James, a residential real estate agent and mother, Alice, who taught sociology and English literature at the local college. Recognizing that Crowe was gifted at a very young age, his mother pushed him to excel. He skipped kindergarten and two grades in elementary school, and, by the time he attended the University of San Diego High School, he was quite obviously younger than the other students.

Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by age 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication called the San Diego Door. He then began corresponding with legendary rock & roll critic, Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon Crowe was also submitting articles to Creem, Penthouse, Playboy, Crawdaddy, Music World, Circus and the Los Angeles Times.

After graduating from high school in 1972 at age 15, Crowe joined the staff of Rolling Stone as a Contributing Editor and later went on to become an Associate Editor for the magazine. During that time, he profiled such influential music-world figures as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton and the members of Led Zeppelin.

When Rolling Stone moved its offices to New York, Crowe decided to try his hand in other artistic endeavors. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned the focus of his attention to a book about teens growing up in the late '70s.

In 1979, Crowe (then 22) went undercover as a southern California high schooler to research his book on teen life. Fast Times at Ridgemont High became a bestseller and Universal Pictures tapped Crowe to write the screenplay. Released in the spring of `82 and directed by Amy Heckerling, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” became one of the year's biggest hits and launched the careers of such stars as Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Forest Whitaker, Nicolas Cage and Eric Stoltz. The Writers Guild of America awarded Crowe with a nomination for Best Screen Adaptation, and the film became an instant cult classic.

In 1989, Crowe made his feature film directorial debut with his original screenplay “Say Anything...” starring John Cusack and Ione Skye. Cameron's second movie, set in Seattle, was the 1992 romantic comedy “Singles.”

Crowe's next project, “Jerry Maguire” starring Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr., was released in 1996 to enormous box office success and critical acclaim. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture, and Cuba Gooding Jr. took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Cameron also received a nomination from the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

Conversations with Wilder, a collection of interviews with legendary director Billy Wilder, was published in November of 1999 by Knopf.

“Almost Famous,” released in September 2000, was the culmination of a ten-year journey to put Cameron's experiences working for Rolling Stone on film. It was cited on over 150 critic's Top 10 List's for 2000 and received six Golden Globe and four Academy Award nominations. The film received two Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical and Best Supporting Actress (Kate Hudson), and Cameron received his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Cameron's next film, “Vanilla Sky,” a retelling of the Spanish film “Abre los Ojos” (Open Your Eyes), starred Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. “Vanilla Sky” was a worldwide box office success, with Cameron Diaz receiving wide critical acclaim. Paul McCartney's title song was also nominated for an Academy Award.