Sir David Frederick Attenborough was born on May 8, 1926, in Middlesex and grew up on the campus of University College, Leicester, where his father was principal.

His first brush with naturalism began at the age of 11 when he heard that the zoology department needed a large supply of newts, which he offered to supply for threepence each.

Before the Second World War, he would race around on his Raleigh bike looking for newts, grass snakes, dragonflies, and fossils in the English countryside.

Sir David attended the University of Cambridge before serving in the Royal Navy from 1947 to 1949. He started at the BBC in 1952, although it was behind the camera rather than in front of it because his bosses considered his teeth too prominent.

But everything changed in 1954 when Sir David, then aged 28, was dispatched with a cameraman to find a rare jungle bird for the show Zoo Quest. 

He was asked to step in after a zookeeper who had been lined up for the job fell ill - and the rest is history.

He had no plans to travel the world and was already married to his wife, Jane. Their marriage would last for 47 years until her death from a brain haemorrhage in 1997.

They had two children, Robert and Susan. Robert is an academic in Australia, while Susan, a former teacher, works with her father.

When his career began, wild creatures were seen as curiosities to be tracked, captured and brought back to British zoos to be stared at, and Zoo Quest reinforced that Victorian notion.

In the series, he would travel with staff from London Zoo to a tropical country to capture an animal for its collection.

In his much later series Attenborough: 60 Years In The Wild, the transition to a more respectful attitude towards animals and the natural world was a dominant theme.

David's pioneering efforts on screen have been matched by those off camera, as the man responsible for introducing colour television into Britain after he became Controller of BBC Two in 1965.

Four years later, he was appointed director of programmes with editorial responsibility for both of the BBC's TV networks. He introduced popular sports such as snooker to TV as well as the hit series The Forsyte Saga.

But he could not spend too long behind a desk, and even though he was tipped for the post of Director General, he quit management in 1973 to resume programme-making, declaring: 'I haven't even seen the Galapagos Islands.'

It is estimated that 500 million people worldwide watched his amazingly successful 13-part series, Life On Earth, which was regarded as the most ambitious series ever produced by the BBC Natural History Unit.

Even as he approached his 90th year, Sir David continued at a prodigious pace, bringing more about the wonders of planet Earth to the masses.

Even as he approaches his 100th birthday, he is a regular fixture on television.

Most recently, he has fronted Wild London, in which he explores the wildlife of his hometown, from urban deer to rooftop peregrines.

His programmes have earned him awards from all over the world. In April, 2005, he was awarded the Order of Merit by the Queen, in recognition of exceptional distinction in the arts, sciences and other areas.

He was knighted in 1985.

Over the years, he has received numerous honorary degrees and a number of prestigious awards, including Fellowship of the Royal Society.

Sir David is a trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and president of the Royal Society for Nature Conservation.