Steve Irwin

Australian zookeeper, conservationist, wildlife expert and television personality, best known as a crocodile handler and thus nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter."

The son of a reptile enthusiast and a nurse who cared for injured animals, he received his first snake on his 6th birthday and was hooked just as his father was. His parents moved to Queensland in 1970 where his father established a small reptile park three years later at the town of Beerwah. Young Irwin reportedly wrestled his first crocodile under his father's supervision when he was 9 years old. In 1991, when his parents retired, Irwin took over the family business, the Australia Zoo.

With business savvy and love for reptiles, the Australia Zoo expanded. In 1990 while filming a TV commercial in the zoo, John Stainton, producer, featured Irwin showing off his animals. A documentary was born, and Irwin would later achieve worldwide fame from the television series The Crocodile Hunter (1996–2007), an internationally broadcast wildlife documentary series which he co-hosted with his wife Terri.

Its terrific reception led to more TV series, Croc Files (1999-2001), Croc Diaries (2002-2006) and The New Breed Vets (2005). Irwin's showmanship and his love for his work were evident in his TV programs and documentaries. Nicknaming himself the "wildlife warrior," Irwin said his business was really conservation: "Our motto is conservation through exciting education."

In June 1992, he married Terri Raines and the couple had two children, a daughter Bindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998), and a son, Robert Clarence "Bob" Irwin (born 1 December 2003). His mother died in a car crash on 11 February 2000.

On 2 January 2004 Irwin came under public fire when he held his then one-month-old son Robert in his arm while hand-feeding a chicken carcass to a 3.8-metre (12 ft 6 in) saltwater crocodile.

Irwin's demise was sudden and, in a way, ironic.