Cameron Crowe

At 66 years old, Cameron Crowe has this physical status:

Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, journalist, author, and actor.

Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes. Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School in San Diego, California.

Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything..., followed by Singles, a story of twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on Seattle's burgeoning grunge music scene.

Crowe landed his biggest hit with Jerry Maguire.

After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous.

Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone.

For his screenplay, he won an Academy Award.

In late 1999, Crowe's second book was published, a question and answer session with the film director Billy Wilder entitled Conversations with Wilder.

Early life

Cameron Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California. His father, James A. Crowe, originally from Kentucky, was a real estate agent. His mother, Alice Marie (née George), "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and in family therapy and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe's grandfather was Greek. Crowe was the youngest of three children with two sisters; one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio, California. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in San Diego.

Crowe skipped kindergarten and two grades in elementary school, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite a bit younger than the other students. To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he had nephritis.

Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by the age of 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door. He began corresponding with music journalist Lester Bangs, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1972 at the age of 15. On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a contributing editor and became an associate editor. During this time, Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Poco, Steely Dan, members of Led Zeppelin and more. Crowe was Rolling Stone's youngest-ever contributor.

Personal life

Crowe married Nancy Wilson of the rock band Heart in July 1986. Their twin sons were born in January 2000. Crowe and Wilson separated in June 2008 and Wilson filed for divorce on September 23, 2010, citing "irreconcilable differences". The divorce was finalized on December 8, 2010.

Source

Career

Crowe's first cover story was about the Allman Brothers Band. At the age of 16, he went on the road with them for three weeks and interviewed them, as well as the road crew.

Crowe, who was a fan of the 1970s hard rock bands that the older writers looped, received a lot of television interviews. He wrote mainly about Yes, as well as Led Zeppelin, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, the Eagles, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Russell Ronstadt, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, and others. "He was a pleasure to work with," a former colleague of the youthful Crowe described as "a complete professional." He was outgoing and eager to learn. The guys obviously adored him." Ben Fong-Torres, then-senior editor, also spoke about Crowe: "He was the guy we sent out after dealing with some difficult clients." He covered Rolling Stone, "the band that feared Rolling Stone."

Crowe stayed behind when Rolling Stone moved its California headquarters from California to New York in 1977. He also felt that the elation of his work was starting to fade. He appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax but returned to writing. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.

He suggested going undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences at the age of 22. Simon & Schuster gave him a contract, but he returned to his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School in San Diego. He made new friends and joined in, reliving the senior years when he never had. Though he had intended to include himself in the book, he soon realized that doing so would jeopardize his ability to capture the essence of the high school experience.

In 1981, his book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story, came out. Crowe concentrated on six main characters: a tough guy, a geek, a sexual sophisticate, a sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their lives in typical teenage contexts—at school, on the beach, and in the mall, where many of them worked afterschool—and concentrated on the finer aspects of their lives, which delved into the nexus of adolescence. Scenes from homecoming and graduation, as well as social cliques and sexual encounters were included in this series.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High was a magazine that was published before the book was published. The movie version, which was released in 1982, was lacking a clear plot and featured no major name actors. The studio did not devote any marketing resources to it. Due to word of mouth, it became a sleeper.

The critiques of Fast Times at Ridgemont High were encouraging, and the film ended up promoting the careers of several previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Eric Stoltz, Judge Reinhold, Phoebe Cates, Nicolas Cage, and Sean Penn.

Crowe wrote the screenplay for 1984's The Wild Life, the pseudo-sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, after this triumph. The Wild Life traced the lives of several teenagers after living in an apartment building where teens were enrolled in high school.

James L. Brooks, a film producer, discovered Crowe's original voice and wanted to work with him. Crowe's first directing attempt, 1989's Say Anything...about a young man pining away for the affections of the ostensibly perfect girl, was produced by a Brooks executive. Critics have praised Anything...

Crowe had a teen angst and was ready to shift his attention away from teenage drama and toward his peers by this time. In Seattle, his new venture, 1992's Singles, outlined the tangles between a group of six friends in their twenties. Bridget Fonda and Matt Dillon appeared in the film, where Fonda played a coffee-bar waitress fawning over an aspiring singer played by Dillon. When it came to a couple who was struggling over whether or not they should commit to each other, Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott co-starred. Music forms a major backbone to the film, and the soundtrack became a best-seller three months before its debut. Much of this was due to repeated delays, but studio executives debating how to sell it.

Singles who were riding the heels of Seattle's grunge music boom were able to fly. During recording, bands like Nirvana were still local stars, but their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had to be cut from the film because it was too costly to buy the rights. Crowe had signed members of Pearl Jam shortly before their national triumph, to be depicting Dillon's fictional group, 'Citizen Dick'. He played with him as a rock journalist at a club for a while. "With... an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentricity of a town where espresso carts have sprouted on every corner and children in ratty flannel shirts can record millionaires," Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly.

Crowe wrote and directed Jerry Maguire, who was moving into a new direction. The film is about a highly compensated pro sports agent influenced by sports agent Leigh Steinberg. Maguire has been suspended after a moral revelation, writing and releasing a mission statement pledging sincere service to the athletes and less funds for the company. He starts to form his own company. Jerry and Cuba Gooding, Jr. appeared in the title role, while Tom Cruise played Rod Tidwell, an ageing wide receiver.

His catchphrase, "Show me the money!

"For a time, it was everywhere." Renée Zellweger came as an accountant who puts aside her career security to pursue Maguire's charismatic moral aspirations in both work and love. For his work, Gooding received a Best Supporting Actor award. Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actor were among the film's awards (for Cruise). Cruise received his second Golden Globe for his role as Jerry.

Crowe wrote and directed Almost Famous in 2000 about a teen music journalist who went on the road with a new band in the early 1970s. William Miller, the baby-faced writer who finds himself immersed in the world of sex, heroin, and rock-and-roll, appeared in the film, as well as Kate Hudson. Crowe used a collection of the bands he knew to come up with Stillwater, the burgeoning act that welcomes the young journalist into its ranks, but he became suspicious of his motives. Peter Frampton, a seventies rocker, served as a technical advisor on the film.

William Miller's mother appeared prominently in the film (often admonishing, "Don't take drugs!"). Crowe's own mother and father, who even arrived at the film sets to keep an eye on him while he was on duty. Despite the fact that he begged her not to worry Frances McDormand, who played her role, the two girls ended up getting along well. He also showed his sister, who was portrayed by Zooey Deschanel, rebelling and leaving home, and in real life, his mother and sister Cindy did not talk for a decade and were still mourning to a degree when he finished the film. As the project was complete, the family reconciled.

In addition, Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Crowe was allowed to use one of their songs on the soundtrack after he was invited to perform "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but they did not promise Crowe the right to use one of their other songs in the film itself, but they did not give him the right to "Stairway to Heaven" after the viewer is prompted by a watermark to begin using it. Crowe and his second-wife, singer Nancy Wilson of Heart co-wrote three of the film's five Stillwater songs, while Frampton wrote the other two, with Pearl Jam's Mike McCready playing lead guitar on all of the Stillwater songs. Crowe's reviews were almost universally positive, and it was nominated for and received a number of film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Crowe and co-producer Danny Bramson also received the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media Grammy Award for the soundtrack. Despite all the accolades, the film's returns at the box office were disappointing.

Crowe starred in Almost Famous's 2001 psychological thriller Vanilla Sky, followed by Crowe. The film, starring Tom Cruise, Penélope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz, received mixed reviews at the US box office, but it still managed to gross $100.6 million, his second highest grossing directorial effort behind Jerry Maguire (1996). Abre Los Ojos, Alejandro Amenabar's 1997 Spanish film Vanilla Sky (Open Your Eyes), is a sequel to Alejandro Amenabar's 1998 Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). In both Amenabar's original film and Crowe's remake, Sofia is played by Penélope Cruz.

Crowe directed the romantic tragedy of Elizabethtown in 2005, starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, which received mixed praise on Metacritic, the same as his previous effort, Vanilla Sky.

In November 2009, he started filming Behind the Scenes with the album The Union, a tribute to musician Elton John and Leon Russell whose album was released by award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett. Performer Neil Young, Brian Wilson, Booker T. Jones, steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Don Was, and a 10-piece gospel choir appear on the album with John and Russell. Stevie Nicks and John's long-serving lyricist Bernie Taupin appear alongside. The documentary was slated to open the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival on March 2, 2011.

Crowe's next film, We Bought a Zoo, based on Benjamin Mee's memoir of the same name, was postponed, with production on Aloha postponed. On the film, he collaborated with writer Aline Brosh McKenna of The Devil Wears Prada. Mee is the protagonist of the book, who buys and moves to Dartmoor Zoological Park) in the English countryside. He hopes to save the zoo and run it, as well as his troubled fourteen-year-old son, who is anxious about a fresh start, and he hopes to make his children what he describes as a "adventure." Crowe moved the location to the United States. Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson appeared in the film on December 23, 2011, by 20th Century Fox, and it received a wide release. It received mixed feedback. Jonsi produced the film soundtrack.

"Our boss Kelly has had the desire to produce a 20-year anniversary retrospective film," bassist Jeff Ament said in an interview with Pearl Jam on March 9, 2009. "We are just in the very early stages of that," the band's guitarist Mike McCready said in March. . ... We're starting to go through all of the video we have and Cameron's writing the treatment." As of June 2010, a preliminary video was being shot. A trailer for the film, which featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder choosing from three permanent markers in a store before heading to the camera and saying, "Three is better... Twenty is better," was shown before select films at the 2011 BFI London Film Festival. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as a companion book and soundtrack.

Crowe would write and direct his seventh feature film, originally titled Deep Tiki and Volcano Romance, starring Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon, and Columbia Pictures would be announced in early June 2008. Filming was expected to begin in January 2009, but it was later postponed.

In 2013, the scheme was revived. Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, John Krasinski, and Danny McBride appeared in the film; filming began in Hawaii in September 2013. Aloha was the film's last title, and Sony Pictures released it on May 29, 2015, leading to negative critical reviews.

Crowe's comedies Roadies premiered on the Showtime television channel on June 26, 2016. The show, starring Luke Wilson, Carla Gugino, and Imogen Poots, tells the tale of a colorful road crew who work behind the scenes for a fictional rock band called The Staton-House Band. Crowe wrote and directed the pilot episode as well as the series's finale.

Crowe was reported in 1997 that he was in talks to produce a biopic about Phil Spector, with Tom Cruise in talks to portray him. Universal Pictures was supposed to have released the film. Crowe said in 2005 that the film was unlikely to be made due to Lana Clarkson's assassination, which Spector was found guilty of. According to reports, the film was never produced due to the fact that there was never a third act to the tale.

My Name is Marvin was also attempted to make a biopic about Marvin Gaye. In 2010, the project fell apart due to casting and budget constraints.

Source