Peter Jackson's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed Peter Jackson Sunday Morning Shootout Peter Jackson

Main Movie Roles 2009 - The Lovely Bones 2007 - Hot Fuzz 2005 - King Kong 2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2001 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 1996 - The Frighteners 1994 - Heavenly Creatures 1992 - Braindead 1987 - Bad Taste

BIOGRAPHY:

Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When a friend of his parents bought him a super 8mm movie camera (because she saw how much he enjoyed taking photos), the then eight-year-old Peter instantly grabbed the thing to start recording his own movies, which he made with his friends. They were usually short, but they already had the spectacular trademark that would make Jackson famous: impressive special effects, made at a very low cost. For example, for his film "World War Two" which he made as a teenager, he used to simulate a firing gun by punching little holes into the celluloid, so that, once projected, the gun gave the impression of displaying a small fire. Jackson's first step towards the more serious filmmaking came with an entry in a local contest to stimulate amateur and children's film. For this film, he used stop-motion animation to create a monster that ruins a city in the style of Ray Harryhausen. Unfortunately, he didn't win. When Jackson was 22, he embarked on an movie making-adventure that would change his life. This film, Bad Taste (1987), was begun as any other Jackson film, in an amateuristic style, at a low budget and using friends and local people to star in his film. Jackson himself did nearly everything in the movie, he directed, produced, filmed and starred in it, in a number of roles, amongst them that of the hero, "Derek". And everything was filmed on a second-hand, $250 camera. It took Jackson and his friends four years to complete the movie. What had started out as an joke in a group of friends, then became a cult-classic. A friend of Jackson who was working in the movie industry convinced him the film had commercial prospects and arranged for it to be shown at the Cannes film festival, where it won a lot of acclaim, as well as a number of prizes. The movie soon became a hit because of its bizarre humor and overdose of special-effects, some realistic, some hilarious because of their amateuristic look. After the success of Bad Taste (1987), Jackson became recognized as a director and the door to fame and fortune was opened. He gave up his job at a local photographer's shop and became a well-known director of horror-movies, after the success of his first professionally made movie, Braindead (1992).


TRIVIA:

• Is a fan of _"Doctor Who" (1963)_ (qv), and has used the screen name Xoanon, taken from the Doctor Who story "The Face of Evil.".
• Along with his wife 'Fran Walsh' (qv), he was one of two husband/wife teams to be nominated for an Oscar for the 2003 season, the other team was 'Michael McKean (I)' (qv) and his wife, 'Annette O'Toole' (qv).
• Estimated earnings from the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy come close to $125 million.
• Has been referred to by 'Fran Walsh' (qv) as being a hobbit himself, due to his physical stature, his tendency to go barefoot, and the fact that he is swarthy (in Walsh's words, "furry").
• No longer needs glasses after undergoing eye surgery during the making of _King Kong (2005)_ (qv).
• Three of his collaborators have had connections to the material being filmed, outside the context of the film being made. 'Ian Holm' (qv), whom he cast as Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings, was cast because he had played Frodo in the BBC radio adaptation. That adaptation was written by 'Brian Sibley' (qv), who is a cousin of his wife, 'Fran Walsh' (qv). In _Heavenly Creatures (1994)_, 'Kate Winslet' (qv) plays Juliet Hulme, who would later be known as real-life mystery novelist 'Anne Perry (I)' (qv). Winslet has a sister, 'Anna Winslet' (qv), who appears as Dora in _The Cater Street Hangman (1998) (TV)_ (qv), which was based on one of Perry's novels.
• Collects models of airplanes from World War One.
• Father of 'Billy Jackson (III)' (qv) and 'Katie Jackson (I)' (qv).