David Attenborough is celebrating his 100th birthday on Friday, a milestone in a remarkable life that has taken him from hunting fossils as a boy to becoming perhaps the world\u2019s most celebrated naturalist.<\/p>\n
Tributes are arriving from across the globe \u2014 from the Royal Albert Hall in London to the galley of the Royal Research Ship Sir David Attenborough<\/a> in the Antarctic \u2014 for a man who has dedicated his life to communicating the wonders of nature, and their fragility.<\/p>\n At the Natural History Museum in London, scientists marked the occasion by naming a species of parasitic wasp<\/a> after him, one of more than 50 animals, insects and plants that now carry a version of his name.<\/p>\n \u201cI had rather thought that I would celebrate my 100th birthday quietly, but it seems that many of you have had other ideas,\u201d he said in an audio recording<\/a> released ahead of his birthday, adding that he was \u201ccompletely overwhelmed\u201d by the number of birthday greetings he received.<\/p>\n Look back on his extraordinary life and career.<\/p>\n A life-changing boyhood find<\/p>\n Mr. Attenborough was born in London in 1926 and spent his youth on the campus of what is today the University of Leicester, where his father Frederick Attenborough was second principal. In a moment that would define his life, he was scouring rocks in the English countryside in the late 1930s, when he split one open with a hammer \u2014 revealing the fossil of a marine mollusk<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy eyes were the first to see it since its occupant died 200 million years ago,\u201d he said in a 2009 documentary.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it\u2019s true to say that it was one of the key moments of my life,\u201d he added. \u201cI have been repeating that moment, off and on, throughout my life and the thrill has still not worn off.\u201d<\/p>\n He enrolled at Clare College, part of the University of Cambridge, in 1945, where he studied natural sciences, including geology and zoology. After graduating, he was called to serve for two years in the Royal Navy and was stationed locally in North Wales.<\/p>\n The Museums Special Section<\/p>\n In 1950, he married Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel, who died in 1997.<\/p>\n A filmmaker at heart<\/p>\n After military service, Mr. Attenborough took a job editing science books for children, which he left in 1952. He joined the BBC as a television producer \u2014 an interesting choice as he did not own a television at the time. Two years later, he helped launch \u201cZoo Quest,\u201d which, according to the BBC<\/a>, was the first natural history series to use footage shot on location.<\/p>\n Mr. Attenborough, who joined the show\u2019s expeditions, was part of a team that was the first to film several rare birds and the Komodo dragon, according to the network.<\/p>\n In 1965, he became the head of the recently launched BBC Two, the corporation\u2019s second channel, where he oversaw the creation of the sketch comedy show \u201cMonty Python\u2019s Flying Circus\u201d and the introduction of color television. In 1969 he was promoted to the director of programming for the entire BBC, but by then had tired of corporate life. He resigned a few years later to return to filmmaking full time.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I enjoy,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n Redefining nature documentaries<\/p>\n In 1979, Mr. Attenborough released \u201cLife on Earth\u201d on the BBC, a four-year labor of love that was filmed in more than 100 locations and explored the evolution of life of the planet.<\/p>\n The series was the first to capture footage of several species and their behaviors, including the courtship displays of birds of paradise, according to the BBC. It also featured a striking moment in Rwanda, when Mr. Attenborough sat among a group of gorillas<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe encounter I had with the gorillas \u2014 it seemed to go on forever,\u201d he said of the experience. \u201cAnd I was kind of in paradise. I lost all sense of time.\u201d<\/p>\n The series was a great success, seen by more than 500 million people worldwide, according to the BBC, and ushered in a new era of nature documentaries. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the early 1950s, when Attenborough joined the BBC, natural history television had been mostly conceived of as a specialist genre catering for amateur naturalists,\u201d Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, a professor of science communication at University College London, wrote for The Conversation U.K<\/a>. \u201cBy the 1980s, he had helped transform it into one of the most popular genres of TV programming and a powerful conduit for science communication.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Attenborough followed up \u201cLife on Earth\u201d with similar documentaries, including \u201cThe Living Planet,\u201d \u201cThe Blue Planet\u201d and \u201cLife of Birds.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1985, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to broadcasting and television. He was knighted a second time<\/a> by Prince Charles in 2022 for his services to television and conservation.<\/p>\n A voice for the planet<\/p>\n In the past, some conservationists have criticized Mr. Attenborough and his programs for failing to show humanity\u2019s detrimental impact on the planet, including singling out the forces driving global warming or extinctions.<\/p>\n He was initially cautious about the idea of man-made climate change, but that changed when he attended a lecture in 2004. There he became convinced, beyond any doubt, that humans were responsible, according to The Guardian<\/a>. .<\/p>\n In 2017, he narrated \u201cBlue Planet II,\u201d which raised an alarm about plastic pollution, and in 2019, he narrated Netflix\u2019s \u201cOur Planet,\u201d a series that stressed the harm humankind has done to the natural world.<\/p>\n In recent years, he has urged world leaders<\/a> to work together to address climate change. In 2022, he received a lifetime achievement award from the United Nations<\/a>, for his dedication to addressing issues like climate change, species loss and pollution.<\/p>\n In 2020, he released \u201cA Life on Our Planet,\u201d a book and documentary that he called his \u201cwitness statement.\u201d It is a full-throated condemnation of environmental destruction.<\/p>\n