Hans Hass

Along with his wife Lotte Hass, this adventure-minded Austrian pioneered underwater filming for television during the 1950's and 60's. The first of his 32 books, "Diving for Adventure", was released as early as 1939. The first of 73 films followed a year later. A graduate in marine biology, Hass spent the latter part of the Second World War with an army frogman unit. Post-war, he enjoyed huge commercial and artistic success with the documentary Adventures in the Red Sea (1951), winning first prize at the Venice Film Festival. Hass subsequently introduced the underwater realm to TV audiences with Diving to Adventure (1956), a series dubbed simultaneously into English and German. Sharks and barracudas were regularly featured for dramatic impact. Hass claimed to have had more than 2000 close shark encounters but to have "only been attacked five times". Until 1958, wife Lotte featured in many of his documentaries, initially as 'underwater model', later as marine photographer. Their partnership was as successful as their marriage, which endured for 60 years. Hass gave up diving in 1961 to pursue behavioral and anthropological research. In 1966, he hosted and narrated Wir Menschen (1966) ("Man") , a look at humanity from an outside perspective. In 1999, he set up the International Hans Hass Institute for Energon-Cybernetic Research at the University of Vienna. Hass died in his home town in June 2013 at the age of 94.