Jacques Cousteau was television’s most celebrated maker and presenter of documentaries about the underwater world. Setting the standard for such programs for decades to come, he had a profound influence upon succeeding generations of television documentary makers around the world.

Cousteau was the virtual creator of the underwater documentary, having helped to develop the world’s first aqualung diving apparatus in 1943 while a lieutenant in the French Navy and having pioneered the process of underwater television. The aqualung afforded divers a freedom underwater that they had not hitherto enjoyed, and the arrival of equipment to film underwater scenes opened the door to documentary makers for the first time (he also had a hand in the development of the bathyscaphe, which allowed divers to descend to great depths).

Founder of the French Navy’s Undersea Research Group in 1946, Cousteau became commander of the research ship Calypso (a converted minesweeper) in 1950, and most of his epoch-making films were subsequently made with this vessel as his base of operations (he made a total of some 30 voyages in all). Cousteau’s early films were made for the cinema, and he earned Oscars for The Silent World, The Golden Fish, and World Without Sun, as well as other top awards such as the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Later documentaries were made for television, and such series as Under the Sea, The World About Us, and The Cousteau Odyssey consistently attracted large audiences when shown in the United Kingdom. The World of Jacques Cousteau, first broadcast in 1966, proved internationally successful, running for some eight years (later retitled The Undersea World of Jacques- Yves Cousteau) and drawing fascinated audiences of millions all around the globe. When this series ended in 1976, Cousteau concentrated on one-off specials on selected subjects (titles including Oasis in Space, The Cousteau/Amazon, and Cousteau Mississippi).

The appeal of Cousteau’s films was not limited to the subject matter, for Cousteau’s narrative, delivered in his distinctive nasal, unremittingly French accent, was part of the character of his work. His narration was occasionally humorous and tended to personalize the species under discussion, with fish being described as “cheeky” or “courageous.” The inclusion of members of his family, his wife, Simone, and his two sons (one of whom later died), in his films also added a humanizing touch. Such an approach did much to rouse awareness of the richness of life beneath the waves and underlined the responsibility humankind has toward other species.

The winner of numerous accolades and awards over the years, Cousteau was also respected as an outspoken commentator on a range of environmental issues, particularly noted for his uncompromising stand on such matters as nuclear waste and oil pollution. He also wrote numerous books based on his research and was until 1988 director of the Oceanic Museum of Monaco (a similar institution opened in Paris in 1989 failed to prosper and closed its doors two years later).