Philippe Cousteau | |
|---|---|
 Cousteau after a dive off the island of Isabella, nearMazatlán, Mexico, in 1975 | |
| Born | Philippe-Pierre Cousteau (1940-12-30)30 December 1940 Toulon, France |
| Died | 28 June 1979(1979-06-28) (aged 38) Tagus River,Alverca, Portugal |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Alexandra Cousteau Philippe Cousteau Jr. |
| Parent(s) | Jacques Cousteau Simone Melchior |
| Relatives | Jean-Michel Cousteau (brother) Pierre-Antoine Cousteau (uncle) |
Philippe Pierre Cousteau (30 December 1940 – 28 June 1979) was a French diver, sailor, pilot, photographer, author, director and cinematographer specializing in environmental issues, with a background inoceanography. He was the second son ofJacques Cousteau andSimone Melchior.
Cousteau was proficient filming from the air, on land and underwater. He was the lead cinematographer for most of the Cousteau films during his lifetime;[1] he was nominated for and won several awards.[2]
Born inToulon, Philippe Cousteau first dived with anaqua-lung in 1945 when he was 4 years old. His father brought home a miniature version of the aqua-lung he had co-invented a few years before. Though Philippe had not yet learned to swim, he followed his father into the water. Growing up, he spent each school vacation aboard his father's ship,RVCalypso.
As a teenager, he began to feel the drive to explore. While his father had pursued the horizon on the sea, Philippe Cousteau dreamed of pursuing horizons in the sky and began to studyaerodynamics at the age of 16, flying first as aglider pilot, and then earning his airplane pilot license at a young age.[3]
Cousteau spent two years in theFrench Navy during theAlgerian war as asonar operator and member of the landing party of theLe Normand ship, later earning his degree in science, spent another year atMIT, and then went to Paris to train in cinematography, graduating from I'École technique de photographie et de cinéma (now calledÉcole nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière) in Paris.
"Our goal was to serve as eyes for those who could not travel. We would be like knights errant who would travel the world, bringing their King tales of the Middle East. Except in our case, we would not be reporting to just one person but to millions."
In 1965, Cousteau was an Oceanaut on theConshelf III, an undersea habitat for saturated diving down to 325 feet near Ile Levant in the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to his duties as Oceanaut, Cousteau was an underwater photographer and did all of the underwater filming, which became a National Geographic documentary film that aired in 1966.
Cousteau appeared as himself on the 28 March 1966 episode of the CBS game showTo Tell the Truth. He received three of the four possible votes from the panel.[4]
In February 1967, Cousteau accompanied his father on theRVCalypso for an expedition to film thesharks of theRed Sea and theIndian Ocean. As well as being the lead photographer for the expedition, Cousteau also chronicled his experiences in the 1970 publicationThe Shark: Splendid Savage of the Sea.
In 1969, Cousteau lent his technical expertise to theU.S. Navy'sSEALAB program. In the aftermath ofaquanautBerry L. Cannon's death while attempting to repair a leak in SEALAB III, Cousteau volunteered to dive down to SEALAB and help return it to the surface, although SEALAB was ultimately salvaged in a less hazardous way.[5]
Until his death in 1979, he co-produced numerous documentaries[1] with his father, includingVoyage to the Edge of the World (1976) for the cinema and his own PBS television series,Oasis in Space[6] (1977), concerning environmental issues.
Cousteau was a highly experienced pilot. He earned hisglider pilot license at the age of 16 and went on to obtain pilot credentials to flyballoons,hang gliders, single- and multi-engine airplanes andseaplanes,gyrocopters andhelicopters.[3]
He acquired aPBY Catalina seaplane in 1974. The amphibious aircraft was a converted U.S. Navy Catalina flying boat. Christened the Flying Calypso, the aircraft was in many of the Cousteau films and the home base for Cousteau's team.[7]
Cousteau metJanice Sullivan in the crowded ballroom of St. Regis Hotel in New York City in February 1966. She was a fashion model originally from Los Angeles and more recently from New York. On 10 February 1967, they were married in Paris. Sullivan joined Cousteau on most of his father's expeditions (20 of 26 filming expeditions that spanned 13 years). They had two children,Alexandra Cousteau andPhilippe Cousteau Jr.[8]
Cousteau died in 1979, aged 38, when hisPBY Catalina flying boat crashed in theTagus river nearLisbon. The investigation of the accident was not thorough, and competing theories exist to the present day. One theory is that the aircraft simply touched down on the river too fast, causing it to flip on the water;[9] another is that the aircraft nosed over during a high-speed taxi run undertaken to check the hull for leakage and the left wing broke free, sending its engine toward the cockpit and killing Cousteau instantly. Still another theory is that the aircraft, an amphibian with fully retractable landing gear, landed on the river with the landing gear extended. All others on board survived.[10] His son Philippe Cousteau Jr. was born six months later.
ThePhilippe Cousteau Anchor Museum inAsturias, Spain, and The Lycée Philippe Cousteau inSaint-André-de-Cubzac, France, honor Cousteau's work.[11]
His childrenAlexandra Cousteau and Philippe Cousteau Jr. continue the family work inoceanography as the co-founders ofEarthEcho International.[citation needed]
Cousteau received many awards and honors for his contribution to diving and underwater photography: He was nominated for four Emmy's,[2]NOGI Award for Arts from the Underwater Society of America (now presented by The Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences) (1977),[12] World Wildlife Award and many others. His children's bookFollow the Moon Home won the Green Book Award for picture books in 2017.[13]
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