Tom Stobart
Adventurer and pioneering cameraman, Tom Stobart began his career as a zoologist. Keen to nurture his photography skills, he worked in documentaries before breaking into natural history filmmaking in 1951, when he formed part of an international expedition to Antarctica to film The White Continent.
With his thirst for exploration ignited, Tom then travelled to Africa to film an expedition with Armand and Michaela Denis for Below The Sahara. This historically important film shows vast herds of impalas, kudus, elephants and other game in numbers far greater than can be seen today.
In the same year, Tom filmed the first successful expedition to the summit of Mount Everest. This remarkable feat, during which Tom suffered from pneumonia, resulted in the product, The Conquest Of Everest, which became an iconic film for the cinema audiences of 1953.
Tom returned to the Himalayas the following year to document the search for the yeti in Himalaya Expedition, a film which inspired the Abominable Snowman horror film. Tom journeyed to Nepal once more in 1955 for an anthropological study of the life and customs of the Nepalese in Tensing’s Country.
In 1956, whilst filming in Ethiopia, Tom was shot and left disabled but continued making films up until 1979. These include The Great Monkey Rip-off, a comedy about animal traders who steal monkeys in India, for which Tom directed and wrote the screenplay.
Tom has also authored five books, including an autobiography and two cookery books that reflect his well travelled life.
After a vibrant career Tom died in 1980 at the age of 66.
