David Attenborough: Filmography, biography and personal life

In the UK, any junior high school student knows who David Attenborough is. His name is strongly associated with films about nature. Over the years, his voice sounded off-screen short half-hour series about various animals. Several generations of British have grown up on these educational films, broadcast on the BBC since the seventy-seventh year of the last century to this day. But not only thanks to the voice of the name of David Attenborough became recognizable throughout the world, and he himself often appears in the frame. His presence in the films makes the narrative more authentic. But what does the wide audience know about the personal life of this naturalist, director, screenwriter, TV presenter and, incidentally, a good writer? Did he shoot any other films? We will talk about this in our article.

Childhood

David Attenborough (David Frederick Attenborough) was born in the distant 1926 on the eighth of May. He saw the light in Ailworth (an area in the west of London). But the childhood years of the future naturalist were held at the University College of Leicester, on the campus, whose director was his father Frederick. David was an average child in the family. His older brother Richard later became a famous actor and director. The youngest in the family, John, also achieved success in life. He was destined to become the manager of the automobile company Alfa Romeo. As a child, David was fond of paleontology and geology. He even had his own "museum" in which he represented fossils, rocks and rock samples. During the Second World War, the family was replenished by two girls. The parents of the three Attenborough brothers adopted Jewish refugees who escaped the Holocaust in Europe.

Education

David's childhood passion has already determined his education and his subsequent career. After earning his primary education on the campus of Leicester University College, he entered the boys' gymnasium in Wigeston. There, David Attenborough showed his talents and won a scholarship to study at Cambridge University, where he studied zoology and geology. He graduated from Clare College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in natural sciences. When the young man turned twenty-one, he went to serve in the Royal Navy's army of Wales and Scotland. In 1950, after retiring, David married. His chosen one was Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel. With her, David lived a happy family life. The couple had two children: son Robert and daughter Susan. David was a widower in 1997. His son Robert followed in the footsteps of his father. He teaches bio-anthropology at the School of Archeology at the National University of Australia in Canberra.

Work at the BBC

Immediately after the army, David Attenborough took a job at a publishing house that produced children's popular science literature. And there he learned one important thing: to talk about a complex simple and accessible language. Already in 1952 he moved to work on the BBC channel. First he participated in radio programs, and soon he will appear in the frame: in "Trends in the animal world". This telecast was filmed in a duet with Julian Huxley (a famous naturalist) at the London Zoo. Camouflage, marriage rituals and aposematism, existing in the wild, were disclosed so accessible and interesting that the public craved continuation. Therefore, in 1954, the BBC channel focuses attention to Attenborough in Sierra Leone (an African country), where a naturalist makes a series of adventures with wild animals. A year later, a new series was released from Latin America. Then followed the expedition to Australia, the islands of Komodo and Madagascar. In 1969-1972, a prominent director was the director of the air force.

David Attenborough: "Life on Earth"

In the late seventies the director conceived a truly epoch-making idea. The working title was "Three E". The project was to tell as much as possible about evolution, ecology and ethology. However, on the screens three series came under other names: "Life on Earth", "The Living Planet" and "The Trials of Life". Although in these transmission cycles the director fully embodied his idea. In the Russian box office, all three series begin with the word "Life". In the Soviet Union, they began to be broadcast on television since 1986. The first "Life" with David Attenborough (1979) tells about the birth of proteinaceous creatures on the planet Earth and their evolution. The second series tells about the main distribution areas of animals, it is called "Living Planet". The third cycle is devoted to the problems of ethology, psychology and animal behavior. It was filmed in 1990 and is titled "The Trials of Life". In these three series, the viewer is introduced into the course of the basic concepts of biology.

"Life" and its continuation

"Three E" had a huge success not only in the UK: the "Air Force" channel sold them to many countries around the world. David Attenborough himself did not intend to stop on his laurels. "Life" was continued in seven more series. In 1993, the scientist traveled to Antarctica. After that came the cycle "Life in the freezer." Next, the series "Private Life of Plants", "... birds", "... mammals". The scientist also decided to reveal to the viewer the invisible existence of microorganisms in the series "Life in the Undergrowth". He told about the reptiles and amphibians in "Life with cold blood". The last TV series about nature was released in 2009. It's called simply "Life" and is the sequel to the 1984 old film "The Living Planet". But we must pay tribute to this repetition: it is filmed in a high definition television standard. In total, all these ten cycles total more than two hundred and fifty series.

David Attenborough: filmography

A scientist and a writer does not limit himself to biology in his own interests. He repeatedly filmed documentary films and other topics. Among them it is necessary to note first of all "Lost worlds - a life that has disappeared". This series is devoted to paleontology. In the "First Eden" cycle, a scientist introduces the viewer into the course of a person's life at the dawn of civilization, and in the series "The Eye of a Savage" he tries to show from the inside the art of primitive tribes. Did not stay aside and the ecology, the champion of which was always David Attenborough. The films "The state of the planet" and "The whole truth about climate change" are just devoted to environmental issues.

Did David Attenborough retire?

The scientist and screenwriter announced his intention to retire, in connection with which the "Air Force" began to seek a substitute for the cult hero of the series about nature. True, Until now, Attenborough has no worthy successors. But the director himself does not hurry to retire. In 2009, he filmed "First Life" ("First Life") - a film about the earliest kinds of animals. And in 2011, the premiere of the seven-series cycle "Frozen Planet" was held. For the filming of this film the elderly director even went to the North Pole. The work of David Attenborough is awarded many awards. He is Knight of the Royal Victorian Order and Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded the Order of Merit and Honor.