Jacques Cousteau

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), called the Aqua-Lung, which assisted him in producing some of the first underwater documentaries.

Cousteau wrote many books describing his undersea explorations. In his first book, ''The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure'', Cousteau surmised the existence of the echolocation abilities of porpoises. The book was adapted into an underwater documentary called ''The Silent World''. Co-directed by Cousteau and Louis Malle, it was one of the first films to use underwater cinematography to document the ocean depths in color. The film won the 1956 at the Cannes Film Festival and remained the only documentary to do so until 2004 (when ''Fahrenheit 9/11'' received the award). It was also awarded the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1957.

From 1966 to 1976, he hosted ''The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau'', a documentary television series, presented on American commercial television stations. A second documentary series, ''The Cousteau Odyssey'', ran from 1977 to 1982 on public television stations. Provided by Wikipedia