--- name: "Timothy Treadwell" canonical: "https://film.one/person/timothy-treadwell" fi1m_id: "timothy-treadwell" imdb_id: "nm1765842" tmdb_id: 6819 wikidata_id: "Q469764" roles: ["Additional camera"] born: "29 April 1957" died: "6 October 2003" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T22:54:22.761962+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Timothy Treadwell ## Identity Timothy Treadwell - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/timothy-treadwell - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** timothy-treadwell - **IMDb ID:** nm1765842 - **TMDB ID:** 6819 - **Wikidata ID:** Q469764 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q469764, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1765842/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6819 Additional camera. Born 29 April 1957 in Long Island, New York, USA. Died 6 October 2003. ## Details - **Work:** Additional camera - **Born:** 29 April 1957, Long Island, New York, USA - **Died:** 6 October 2003 - **Also known as:** Timothy Dexter - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Treadwell, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q469764, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1765842/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6819 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Grizzly Man*](https://film.one/film/grizzly-man.md) (85) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Timothy Treadwell > Timothy Treadwell’s bear footage and fierce speeches to his own camera make him a compelling screen presence. We value his commitment to filming the animals, even when his certainty about understanding them gives us reason to doubt him. Timothy Treadwell talks to bears in baby-talk and gives them names, treating familiarity as though it might secure their friendship. When he addresses his own camera, he can become vehement, insisting on an account of himself that leaves little room for doubt. These two habits make him a compelling, sometimes uncomfortable presence in *Grizzly Man* (2005). He wants us to see the animals as he does, but his footage also lets us question what he tells us about them. We can admire the effort he puts into filming without accepting his reading of a bear’s behaviour. He had already put the bears and himself on screen in *The Grizzly Diaries* (1999), for which he was a producer as well as an on-camera presence. For *Grizzly Man*, Werner Herzog takes that self-presentation out of Treadwell’s hands. He builds his documentary from Treadwell’s archive footage and interviews, adding narration that openly challenges his subject’s beliefs. Treadwell’s speeches become something we are asked to examine as well as listen to. We laughed at his rants and then regretted it a little: the force of those speeches makes his need for an audience hard to ignore. Peter Zeitlinger has the cinematography credit, but Treadwell’s bear footage supplies the images that hold us most firmly. There is enough to look at in the wilderness without a voice explaining it, and enough care in the filming to make his attachment to the place comprehensible. Editor Joe Bini moves between that footage, interviews and Herzog’s commentary so that the competing accounts complicate one another. Richard Thompson’s reflective music also helps keep Treadwell from becoming merely a collection of errors for the documentary to expose. Our reservation is with Herzog’s narration, which can be so certain about nature that it invites the same doubts as Treadwell’s speeches. Watch *Grizzly Man* for the bears, but give their cameraman a fair hearing. ## Biography Timothy Treadwell, also credited as Timothy Dexter, was an American environmentalist, naturalist and documentary filmmaker. Born Timothy William Dexter on 29 April 1957 in Mineola, Long Island, New York, he later changed his surname legally to Treadwell. He spent thirteen summers living among coastal brown bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska, and founded the bear-protection organisation Grizzly People. Treadwell produced films about the bears and appeared on television, including the Late Show with David Letterman. His life and death were the subject of Werner Herzog's documentary *Grizzly Man* (2005), which features archive footage of Treadwell. He and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard were killed by a bear in the park on 5 October 2003. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, people.howstuffworks.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Grizzly Man* (2005), Fi1m 85, as Self (archive footage) — [page](https://film.one/film/grizzly-man.md) ## Complete filmography (2) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Grizzly Man* (2005), Additional Camera — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/grizzly-man.md) - *Grizzly Diaries* (2003), Producer, Director ## Gallery - ![Attempt to improve on below quoted sketch by using approximate distances in between relevant waypoints as provided by Ranger Ellis. Each circle's radius shows a (2012)](https://film.one/media/person/98920/gallery-fe8e01fe3c27.jpg) Attempt to improve on below quoted sketch by using approximate distances in between relevant waypoints as provided by Ranger Ellis. Each circle's radius shows a (2012) — user:W., using sketch by Ranger Joel Ellis, US National Park Service., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Timothy_Treadwell_2003-10-06_incident_sketch_-_%27making-of%27.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Diagram of Timothy Treadwell attack site.Letters indicate...a - Floatplane mooredb - best access to the campc - place where bear 141 was killedd - Amie's remain](https://film.one/media/person/98920/gallery-c6758b825f11.jpg) Diagram of Timothy Treadwell attack site.Letters indicate...a - Floatplane mooredb - best access to the campc - place where bear 141 was killedd - Amie's remain — Ranger Joel Ellis, US National Park Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Treadwell_Incident_Map.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Timothy Treadwell](https://film.one/media/person/98920/gallery-50b0ebefb901.jpg) Timothy Treadwell — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/timothy-treadwell