Timothy Treadwell was an American documentary filmmaker and an environmentalist, best known as a bear enthusiast, owing to which he earned the moniker ‘Grizzly Man’. Born in New York into a middle class family, Timothy grew up as an average kid and completed his high school graduation from New York and later moved to California to realize his dream of becoming an actor. However, even after giving many auditions, he failed to kick-start his acting career and ended up as an alcoholic and drug addict. It was after he nearly died from an overdose, that he began taking his life seriously and found solace studying the grizzly bears of Alaska. He began setting up camps in Alaska, where the population of grizzly bears was extremely high. In the late 1990s, he wrote a book titled ‘Among Grizzlies’ based on his experiences of living with the grizzly bears. Owing to the media coverage in the country, he became popular. However, his life saw a tragic end in October 2003 when he and his girlfriend were attacked and killed by a brown bear while they were camping in the Katmai National Park. Filmmaker Werner Herzog’s documentary film ‘Grizzly Man’ further brought the worldwide attention to Timothy, posthumously.
