David Attenborough, the world's most famous wildlife presenter, is celebrating his 100th birthday on Friday. The BBC is hosting a party at the Royal Albert Hall, cinemas are screening his nature films, and friends have spent weeks praising the man and his work. However, according to Alastair Fothergill, producer of some of Attenborough's most well-known documentaries, the centenarian is likely uncomfortable with the attention. 'He's always been very clear to all of us that work with him: Remember, the animals are the stars, I'm not,' Fothergill told The Associated Press. 'So, yes, surprisingly for one of the most famous men on the planet, he doesn't like being famous at all.'
A Legacy of Natural Wonder
Attenborough has had to accept accolades this week as scientists, politicians, and conservationists celebrate the man who brought frolicking gorillas, breaching whales, and tiny poisonous frogs into living rooms worldwide for over 70 years. Through BBC programs such as Life on Earth, The Private Life of Plants, and The Blue Planet, Attenborough illuminated the beauty, ferocity, and sometimes downright weirdness of nature in a hushed melodic voice conveying his own awe. Viewers who might never leave their hometowns were transported to the Himalayas, the Amazon, and the unexplored forests of Papua New Guinea. Behind the stunning images was an attention to scientific accuracy that taught people about complex subjects like evolution, animal behavior, and biodiversity. As evidence mounted, he began sounding the alarm about climate change, ocean plastic, and other human-caused threats to the planet.
The Voice of Conservation
Ben Garrod, an evolutionary biologist at the University of East Anglia and broadcaster who worked alongside Attenborough, believes Attenborough initially saw himself as a neutral observer but was compelled to speak out when he saw that politicians, business leaders, and the public weren't taking the emergency seriously. 'He is showing you the majesty, the ferocity, the fragility of the natural world. He shouldn't have ever had to have turned to policymaking and advocacy,' Garrod said. 'I think it's very easy for a lot of people to say, He should have done it sooner. Why didn't he act 20 years, 30 years, 40 years ago?' Then Garrod asked: 'Why didn't we?'
Early Life and Career
Born in London on May 8, 1926, the same year as the late Queen Elizabeth II, Attenborough grew up on the grounds of what is now the University of Leicester, where his father was a senior leader. His fascination with nature began as a young boy, riding his bicycle into the countryside to collect treasures like abandoned birds' nests, shed snake skin, and fossils. 'I'd find a fossil and show it to my father and he'd say Good, good, tell me all about it. So I responded and became my own expert,' Attenborough told Smithsonian Magazine in 1981. He studied geology and zoology at the University of Cambridge. In 1952, Attenborough joined the BBC, working behind the scenes on everything from ballet to short stories. After about two months, the capture of a 'living fossil' off East Africa caused an international stir, and he produced a short piece about the coelacanth with Professor Julian Huxley. But Attenborough thought television could do more. 'I'd always wanted to do films on animals around the world,' he recalled in a 1985 interview. 'But the attitude was, We've got TV cameras in the studio. What's this about spending money abroad?'
Zoo Quest and Breakthrough
In 1954, he finally persuaded the BBC to let him accompany a London Zoo team to West Africa to collect specimens. That began a decade as host and producer of Zoo Quest, kick-starting his field career. One of the most famous moments came during the 1979 series Life on Earth, when Attenborough encountered a family of mountain gorillas in a forest on the border of Rwanda and what was then Zaire (now Congo). During that scene, voted one of Britain's top TV moments of all time, a young gorilla lies across his body while babies try to remove his shoes. Attenborough grins, laughs, and is speechless with delight. 'I honestly don't know how long it was,' he later told the BBC. 'I suspect it was about 10 minutes, or even a quarter of an hour. I was simply transported. Extraordinary, really. It was one of the most privileged moments of my life.'
A Character Everyone Could Understand
Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, a professor of science communication at University College London, said Attenborough combined his knowledge of television, understanding of his audience, and commitment to science to create a character who could deliver complicated issues surrounding wildlife, conservation, and natural history to a mass audience. 'Basically he gave wildlife television a figure, a front of the house person which has come to embody television discourse about nature,' Gouyon said. On his centenary, fans made a point of finding him. In a recorded audio message, he said he thought he would mark the day quietly. 'I've been completely overwhelmed by birthday greetings from preschool groups to care home residents and countless individuals and families of all ages,' he said. 'I simply can't reply to each of you all separately, but I would like to thank you all most sincerely for your kind messages.'
Looking Ahead
He isn't planning to stop now, Fothergill said. 'He said to me recently he feels unbelievably privileged that a man in his late 90s is still being asked to work. And, you know, he will go on forever. He will die in his safari shorts.'
