Sir David Frederick Attenborough, (born on May 8, 1926 in London, England)

Sir David is one of the world's best-known broadcasters and naturalists. Widely considered one of the pioneers of the nature documentary, his career as the respected face and voice of British natural history programs has endured more than 50 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the eight "Life" series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all terrestrial life. A ninth series is in production. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC2 and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

He is the younger brother of director and actor Richard Attenborough.

Attenborough grew up in College House on the campus of University College, Leicester, where his father, Frederick, was principal.^[1] He was the middle of three sons (his elder brother, Richard, became a director and his younger brother, John, an executive at Alfa Romeo). During World War II his parents also adopted two Jewish refugee girls from Europe.

Attenborough spent his childhood collecting fossils, stones and other natural specimens. He received encouragement in this pursuit at age seven, when a young Jacquetta Hawkes admired his "museum". A few years later, one of his adoptive sisters gave him a piece of amber filled with prehistoric creatures; some 50 years later, this amber would be the focus of his program The Amber Time Machine.

Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and then won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge where he obtained a degree in Natural Sciences. In 1947, he was called up for National Service in the Royal Navy and spent two years stationed in North Wales and the Firth of Forth.

In 1950, Attenborough married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel; the marriage lasted until her death in 1997. The couple had two children, Robert and Susan.

Foremost among Attenborough's TV documentary work as writer and presenter is the "Life" series, which begins with the trilogy: Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984) and The Trials of Life (1990). These examine the world's organisms from the viewpoints of taxonomy, ecology and stages of life respectively.

They were followed by more specialized surveys: Life in the Freezer (about Antarctica; 1993), The Private Life of Plants (1995), The Life of Birds (1998), The Life of Mammals (2002) and his most recent, Life in the Undergrowth (2005), which concerned terrestrial invertebrates. Life in Cold Blood (dealing with reptiles and amphibians) is currently in post-production and due for broadcast in 2008.^[5] The "Life" series as a whole currently comprises 74 programs.

In 1985, Sir David was knighted; he was given the Order of Merit in 2005. Over the years he has received honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards including Fellowship of The Royal Society. He is a Trustee of the British Museum, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and President of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.