Attenborough, Sir David Frederick 1926-
English naturalist and broadcaster

Born in London, he is the younger brother of filmmaker Richard Attenborough. After service in the Royal Navy (1947-49) and three years as an editorial assistant in an educational publishing house, he joined the BBC in 1952 as a trainee producer. For the series Zoo Quest (1954-64) he made zoological and ethnographic expeditions to remote parts of the globe to capture intimate footage of rare wildlife in its natural habitat. From 1965 to 1968 he was Controller of BBC 2 and subsequently director of programmes (1969-72) before returning to documentary-making, with such series as Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The First Eden (1987), Lost Worlds, Vanished Lives (1989), The Trials of Life (1990), Life in the Freezer (1993) and The Private Life of Plants (1995). His books include Zoo Quest to Guiana (1956), The Tribal Eye (1976), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990) and The Private Life of Plants (1994).