David Attenborough has lived on earth for a century.
During that time, he has traveled the forests and oceans, bonded with gorilla families, collected fossils, visited hidden tribes, directed Europe’s first color television broadcasts, narrated moving documentaries to hundreds of millions of viewers, won numerous awards, named dozens of species after him, and raised the alarm on climate change.
Here are some key highlights from this famous environmental broadcaster’s busy and extraordinary life, spent with humans, animals, plants and more.
prince, princess and parrot
The television personality developed the signature charismatic style of gentle humor, warmth, and curiosity that made him an instantly recognizable figure in the famous 1954 “Zoo Quest” series. In 1958, Attenborough introduced a three-year-old parrot named Cocky, which he had captured during his last “zoo exploration” expedition, to the children of the British royal family: young Prince Charles and Princess Anne (Princess Royal).
Mr Attenborough recounted the experience in an interview with the BBC ahead of Charles’ coronation in 2023, saying the parrot was on the prince’s hand and that the animal had “a very powerful beak and a very powerful bite. And I was pretty confident about the cockie, but it actually may have cut off Charles’ little finger.”
Attenborough’s career at the BBC accelerated from here, and in 1965 he became controller of the BBC’s new second channel, BBC 2. Attenborough launched a series of innovative productions, including introducing audiences to the unconventional comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
The station then served as director of television programming from 1968 to 1972, but he later resigned to produce his own television programming.
During a televised expedition to a remote part of New Guinea in 1971, Attenborough and his BBC crew came into contact with the previously unknown Biami people. Attenborough communicated with the tribe through gestures, observed their ornaments, and asked about a nail ceremonially driven into the nose of one of the men.
Reflecting on the moment in a 2016 interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Mr. Attenborough said, “It’s amazing. It’s amazing how eloquent you can be to someone who doesn’t know a word of your language, or who hasn’t really met any of your kind before.”
Not only did the personable presenter get to know people, he also befriended a family of gorillas in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains forest. During the filming of “Life on Earth” in 1978, a three-year-old gorilla named Pablo took a liking to Attenborough and playfully lay on top of him.
The scene captured hearts around the world and led to “one of the greatest conservation success stories I’ve ever witnessed,” Attenborough said in the April 2026 release of The Gorilla Story. The film tells the story of the same group of gorillas from the 1970s to the present day. He added that his connection to gorillas is “a connection that has lasted all my life. And it all started with one special little gorilla.”
The naturalist’s passion for interacting with the animals he observes is evident in Episode 6 of the 2013 BBC documentary series Africa, when he interacted with a blind baby rhino at Lewa Wildlife Reserve in Kenya.
When the rhino approached during the shoot, Mr. Attenborough got down on all fours, looked into the animal’s face, and began exchanging calls. Mr Attenborough went on to describe rhinos as “fascinating creatures”.
Attenborough and his younger brother, the late actor and film producer Richard Attenborough, grew up living on the University of Leicester campus, where their father was principal.
The university said Richard Attenborough once pranked and locked his younger brother in a padded cell in a building on campus that was a Victorian-era mental hospital. In 2006, the institution awarded the brothers its highest honor, a Distinguished Honorary Fellowship.
Attenborough’s work became world famous in the 2000s after he explored the world’s oceans in “The Blue Planet” and the wildlife that inhabits different bodies of water, forests, caves, mountains, and icy terrain in “Planet Earth.”
The appeal of his moving nature programs has earned him three Emmy Awards, the first being in 2018 for Outstanding Narrator for “Blue Planet II.” The series won a British Academy Award.
Mr. Attenborough was first knighted by Britain’s late Queen Elizabeth II in 1985 for his services to television broadcasting. King Charles III then awarded him his second knighthood, the prestigious Knight Grand Cross, in 2022 for his services to television broadcasting and conservation.
According to Guinness World Records, Attenborough has the longest career as a television presenter, spanning more than 70 years. Mr Attenborough, along with Prince William, helped establish the Earthshot Prize in 2019, which celebrates innovative environmental solutions.
Attenborough had a long friendship with Queen Elizabeth. He produced some of her Christmas broadcasts over the years, and the monarch even casually joked with him while strolling through the Buckingham Palace gardens for a TV documentary that aired in 2018.
“I think the most precious thing was hearing her laugh,” Attenborough said of the queen, who died in 2022, in an interview with ITV News.
Attenborough’s voice made his Netflix debut in 2019 on “Our Planet.” He also won an Emmy Award for his narration on the eight-part series, which uses mesmerizing cinematography to tell the dramatic stories of animals as they journey through the natural world.
At the premiere of the series at London’s Natural History Museum, Prince Charles paid tribute to Attenborough for “all he has done over the years to bring to our attention the wonders and charms of the natural world, and our increasingly desperate plight.”
Editor’s note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series dedicated to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet and their solutions. Rolex’s Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to promote awareness and education on key sustainability issues and inspire positive action.
