In a striking case of "you KNEW it had to happen eventually", "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed on a shoot for an underwater documentary. He was killed when a stingray barb punctured his chest.
Still, what a guy...
Mark
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Wow, god, I was just thinking about his show a few days ago. I used to watch the Crocodile Hunter on discovery.
He was quite the guy...
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
That's very sad news. I can only imagine how his family must feel...
-MMoM Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
I feel very sorry for his kids. They're just about the same age as my own.
Personally, I feel that he brought a new level of publicity and respect to animal documentaries. Big loss there.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Respect?
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Yes, respect. Inside and outside the industry. Before he came along, most documentaries would put you to sleep in 2.6 seconds, and most people in the film industry probably wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot cattleprod. That's been severely changed.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I don't think that's at all true.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Well, opinions differ. Anyway, the only people doing that stuff before Steve that I can name are Marty Stauffer and Jacques Cousteau. And while I acknowledge the significance of their work, neither is particularly exciting to the common person. I think they were about the only people doing that stuff at the time. I might be wrong, but I believe that Steve was directly responsible for the creation of Animal Planet.
So anyway, I know we've all thought it in the past and joked about it, but who isn't suprised this happened?
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
It's very sad, especially with him having a young family. I think you could debate his merits - as in raising the public consciousness to conservation etc. - against his, er, anti-merits? Demerits? Anyway, the fact that his own personality and the need to provide a 'show' would conflict with the message. Like that trip to Antarctica.
Anyway, Death Of Being Wrestled To Death By Steve is now out of a job, whereas Death By Stingray is probably feeling pretty smug.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I couldn't believe it when I first heard the news. I think the difference too with Steve Irwin is that he was such a LIVELY person, sort of in your face when on camera, that indeared him to a lot of people. So to think that that lively character is now... dead - is a shock. When you think of others when you hear 'such and such' has died - you probably only had seen their photograph etc.
Plus, he was young - 44. Young Family - youngest 3 y.o.
He DID do a lot in the way of raising the awareness of conservation of animals and their habitats and living in harmony with even the fiercest of creatures.
Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
This is indeed very sad news.
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
I know, when I heard my jaw dropped to the floor.
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
I hope his children remember him, but at that age they might not have much memory of him when they grow up. I bet he made pretty much the coolest Dad in the world.
It did seem pretty inevitable, though. He seemed to tempt fate on a daily basis.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
I don't know, with all that footage, it might be fairly easy for Bindi (who's about 7 or 8 now, I think) to remember her dad. It's going to be a lot harder for his son.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
quote:Originally posted by B.J.: Yes, respect. Inside and outside the industry. Before he came along, most documentaries would put you to sleep in 2.6 seconds, and most people in the film industry probably wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot cattleprod. That's been severely changed.
Perhaps. But the very first time I watched the Crocodile Hunter, I thought, "Can this guy really be so stupid?" I think the guy had it coming, regardless of what his message or his goals were. If you spend so much time hanging around dangerous, poisonous animals and handling them in such ways, your luck is bound to run out sooner or later.
For me, the perfect picture to sum up my thoughts about him is the one where he's feeding a dead chicken to a huge crocodile with one hand, and holding his baby son in his other. You've probably already seen it, it's been the most popular picture for the obits this morning.
Posted by Not Invented Here (Member # 1606) on :
I'll miss him. I have never seen a person so amazed and happy to discover large piles of poo. To me he used pretty much the opposite techniques to David Attenborough to achieve much the same effect - get people interested in animals and show how stunning nature can be. I also thought he was invincible, apparently I was wrong. Rest in peace Steve.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Thank you. Someone else agrees with me. I laughed good, long, & hard. My only comment: "SPEED KILLS, PEACHES!"
Also, from Scott Adams' blog: I was shocked when I heard the news that the Crocodile Hunter died in a �freak stingray accident.� I had ten dollars bet on �misjudged the speed of a crocodile.� Something tells me that the media already had his obituary written with a fill-in-the-blank for the specific creature that killed him.
[ September 04, 2006, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: Shik ]
Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
I listened to a segment on CNN where they talked to the producer mentioned in the story, I believe it was John Stainton.
He said the video they were shooting was not about Stingrays and that Steve simply swam over a Stingray buried in the sand. The Stingray I'm guessing was startled enough to lash out and hit Steve in the chest with its barb, the result of which was the barb punctured his heart.
So, rather than him dying while doing something dangerous, he died the way any other diver could have, from the barb of a startled Stingray he just happened to swim over without noticing.
[ September 04, 2006, 08:47 PM: Message edited by: Sol System ]
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
If that's true, then I'd be much more inclined to be lenient. At least he wasn't purposely antagonizing the creatures. Still, in his line of work, it pays to be careful. And if his TV persona is anything to go by, he wasn't careful.
I must admit, I've still got this mental image of him exclaiming, "Crikey, it got me!"
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
That's what it says in the news stories, though admittedly not in the one linked, I don't think. Anyway, supposedly it's only the second or third death by sting ray in Australian history.
I want to clarify that my skepticism has to do solely with the claim that nobody took nature documentaries seriously until Steve Irwin, since I think in some sense the answer is just the opposite. On the other hand, he surely played a part in enhancing Animal Planet's bottom line, and he was by all accounts a serious mover in local wildlife conservation.
This will make my next viewing of The Life Aquatic that much more depressing, I think.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by MinutiaeMan: If that's true, then I'd be much more inclined to be lenient. At least he wasn't purposely antagonizing the creatures. Still, in his line of work, it pays to be careful. And if his TV persona is anything to go by, he wasn't careful.
Exactly: my first thought was "He must have really rilled up a stingray to get himself killed by one! I've handeled stingrays a couple of times- both at Monterray and Miami seaquariums and found them to be very docile. Of course, that's not a "wild" animal exactly, but I have never ever heard of anyone being killed by a stingray. Here in south Florida, there are weekly stingray encounters for divers and no one has ever been seriously hurt by a stingray.
It's not kind, but I still think they may have been provoking the animal to get "good footage" like on most of Irwin's assinine shows, "Here's a big croc- never ever grab it like this!"
The guy helped get a lot of people intrested in animals, but definitely not by respecting them.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Well, in many ways he was an illusionist and magician. He knew EXACTLY what he was doing, and used the camera to create a false sense of danger where (for him) there wasn't much of one. It was very much a case of "don't try this at home" as, after all, he had trained himself to do this right.
Mark
Posted by WizArtist II (Member # 1425) on :
sort of like "Jackass: The Movie"?
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
Except that in Jackass they were trying to hurt themselves. Steve's dad was a herpetologist and he'd been around dangerous animals literally all his life. It'd be like if you or I made a documentary about driving, and showed it to someone in a third world country who'd never seen a car in real life, and did things like pull donuts or fishtail on the ice or just show them 100mph traffic around Chicago on the interstate, and pretending that we're in extreme danger when really, its just something we do every day...
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
I've seen other shows based on The Croc Hunter. Such as Killer Instinct with some bearded guy. He used the exact same technique for catching crocodiles and snakes. It may seem disrespectful to us, but it is the best way to handle a wild animal and not get yourself or the animal hurt.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
"Luke, I am your - Crikey! Would you look at the size of this croc!"
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
For some reason Steve Irwin's death really bothered me...I was sad for most of Monday. I'm not one to mourn the death of celebrities, nor am I a fan of his. But I agree with AndrewR; he was so full of life that he seemed nearly invincible. And he was such a character, and characters aren't supposed to die! In any case, it's never easy to see someone cut down in his prime...
Posted by Mikey T (Member # 144) on :
I can't believe a crock didn't take him out... and to think of his children, they'd have to watch his shows and vid to see what kind of a dad he was both on and off screen. I wonder why and how his wife tolerated his job.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
From what I've read, the freak part of the accident is that it pierced his heart. Had the stingray gotten him anyplace else this would have been a non-issue. I guess they figure the camera guy plus Steve might have made the ray feel it was surrounded.
I do think it's sad. Maybe not entirely unexpected, but sad all the same.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I was watching a bit about stingray barbs by a person from the Sydney aquarium - they also have venom so he might not have lived depending on the size of the barb. The person said he had been stung by a relatively small stingray (he had stood on it when surfing) and he needed three shots of morphine - so the venom in a big sting ray may have killed him anyway?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Wrong, very very wrong. And why have you got his son so prominantly figured?
Mike, his wife was also an animal person/conservationist/wildlife ranger. I guess she was used to it. She and the two kids were hiking in Tasmania when it happened.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Very British, but:
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
Another laconic barb...
Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
Yo, Andrew, his wife is named Terri, maybe she's nicknamed Mike.
Posted by bX (Member # 419) on :
I think Andrew was answering Vice-Admiral Coffee MikeyT's questions about how or why his wife tolerated his high-risk job.
Also, that was terrible, Johnny. (keep it up)
Posted by Jay the Obscure (Member # 19) on :
You are soooo right I just didn't read it close enough.
My most humble apologies to Andrew and to everyone who holds him dear.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
I didn't design it.
Also, unless you knew him personally, get over yourself. Y'pays yer monies, y'takes yer chances.
So! Steve Irwin walks into a barb...
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
hehehehehe...."Crikey, listen, grab a Foster's and come down to the beach, Steve's havin a barby!"
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
Did anyone see that memorial at his zoo yesterday? I saw bits and pieces of it myself. You know you've got some major pull when you get the Prime Minister, Russell Crowe and the Wiggles all together. (Okay, Crowe wasn't there in person, but still....) I wasn't suprised that his dad and Wes gave their own eulogies, and both nearly broke down while talking, but what floored me was his daughter, Bindi. Not only did she get up in front of everyone by herself and gave her own tribute, but at 8 years old, appeared much stronger in spirit than most of the other people there. I have a feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more from this girl in about 10 years.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Yeah I was going to post about that. She did a good job. Infront of 5000 people there and probably 300 million (supposedly) viewers.
Terri Irwin look pretty distraught but Bindi seemed really there for her mother. Strong little girl.
Oh yeah, Prime Minister, Governer General of Australia, Leader of the Opposition, The Premier of Queensland, The Governer of Queensland all in the one row. Quite a few little 'rememberences' by a lot of different celebrities. I missed the Russel Crowe bit though - didn't watch all of it.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
And now the ultimate question - "Steve Irwin vs Russell Crowe, who would win?" - will go forever unanswered. . .
Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :
Crowe will probably end up playing him in some big-budget biopic.
I caught a large portion of the memorial and I too was surprised at the stength and understanding that his daughter showed. It was also very painful to listen to his dad talk about how he and the animals had lost their best friend. All in all, it seemed a fitting tribute.
-MMoM Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by B.J.: I have a feeling we're going to be hearing a lot more from this girl in about 10 years.
Yeah- in porn. I forsee a whole series of Cockadile Hunter movies...
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