Cameron Crowe Biography
Certainly idiosyncratic as a writer, Cameron Crowe has created a series of scripts that, while liked by the critics, were considered offbeat and difficult to market. He began his writing career as a 15-year-old high-school student, with articles on music submitted to Rolling Stone magazine, and only a few years later had his first script, for
Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This movie was important for more than his career - his future wife
Nancy Wilson had a small role in the film. Music remained important to him, with the rock band
Pearl Jam playing a bit role in
Singles well before they were "discovered". His next movie,
Jerry Maguire, took over five years to develop - a chance photograph of a football player and his agent was the initial inspiration. It took some 20 drafts and near terminal discouragement that he would ever get it right before the film finally made it to the screen. And this time his wife composed the music.
Trivia

Early career as a journalist included 4 years as the rock music critic for the San Diego Union (the city's major daily).

Former journalist for Rolling Stone magazine.

Son of
Alice Marie Crowe.

Attended University of San Diego High School.

Attended Indio High School.

Attended San Diego City College.

His wife is
Nancy Wilson from the rock group
Heart.

Wrote liner notes for
Peter Frampton's breakthrough album "Frampton Comes Alive".

Wrote liner notes for
Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains The Same" live record.

Often refers to the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" in his films.
Steven Spielberg did a cameo in Crowe's
Vanilla Sky and Crowe did a cameo in Spielberg's
Minority Report; both films starred
Tom Cruise.

Admires
Billy Wilder very much and uses a lot of what Wilder taught him in his films. In addition, his favorite movie is Wilder's
The Apartment.

He and his wife have 4 springer spaniels.

He wrote the screenplay to
Fast Times at Ridgemont High based on his book. He wrote the book after posing as a student at his old high school to see how student life had changed.

Five of the films that he directed (
Say Anything...,
Singles,
Jerry Maguire,
Almost Famous and
Elizabethtown) have scenes with characters on airplanes or walking through airports.

Wrote the liner notes for "Anthology: Through the Years" by
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Wrote the liner notes for "Biograph" by
Bob Dylan.

Wrote the foreword for "Ready When You Are, Mr. Coppola, Mr. Spielberg, Mr. Crowe" by
Jerry Ziesmer (Scarecrow Press, 2003).

Brother-in-law of
Ann Wilson.
Source provided by imdb (Copyright) - The Internet Movie Database.