Bear Grylls

Bear Grylls

No, Bear Grylls wasn raised by wolves in Eastern Siberia. In fact, he was raised decidedly upper middle class by a politician father and a mother affectionately known as Lady Grylls. It isn exactly the kind of upbringing you expect a worldrenowned survival expert to have, let alone one named Bear.

He was born Edward Michael Grylls, but was given the Bear moniker when he was just a wee, wiggling sprog. The name stuck, so his family set out to ensure Bear didn grow up to be a poet or patent lawyer. How? By enrolling him in Cub Scouts.

All that campfire and birdhouse building came in handy when a young Bear Grylls entered the British Special Forces. His grueling threeyear stint laid the groundwork for his future career as a professional survivalist, but it was his nearly insatiable appetite for adventure that really set the wheels in motion.

bear grylls, adrenaline junkie

At 23, Bear Grylls became one of the youngest Britons to climb Mount Everest. He also circumnavigated the British Isles on a jet ski and crossed the North Atlantic in what amounted to an inflatable dingy. Sure, Grylls did these things because he has an obvious death wish, but often he also did them to raise awareness or money for important causes, including aiding fellow adventurers.

Part of that awarenessraising involved doing the rounds on TV talk shows. Bear handsome mug and easygoing demeanor made him a natural in front of the camera, and offers began to pour in.

bear grylls becomes a tv star

One of his first forays onto the tube was a fourpart reality show that reenacted the French Foreign Legion basic desert training in the Sahara. It was a rather unpleasant experience, but throughout even the show most exhausting moments, Bear Grylls easy charisma shined through. Anyone with a clue could see the guy was going to be a star.

bear grylls takes on nature

It didn take long for the father of three to make those starinthemaking predictions come true. His first regular series, Born Survivor: Bear Grylls, debuted in 2006 and became a huge hit in England. Audiences loved the mix of drama, adventure, practical advice, and stunning scenery. Cable networks all over the world soon picked it up it became known as Man vs.

Notorious daredevil Richard Branson had nothing on Bear Grylls, and the world was Gryll for the taking all he had to do was not die in some remote corner of the world doing what it was that made him famous. Easy for dudes like Tom Cruise or the guy from House, but a real challenge for a guy who climbs and jumps off high things for a living.

bear grylls fakes it?

It turns out surviving in some places was even too much for Bear Grylls. Loose lips on the set leaked evidence that Bear and his producers faked scenes and misled audiences. In particular, they labeled a horse rented from a local ranch as wild and claimed that Grylls was stranded on a isolated island in the South Pacific while actually filming him chilling on a Hawaiian beach. Bear dismissed the criticism by pointing out that his show was entertainment, and not an actual documentary on how to survive.

It a shame that Bear Grylls even has to defend his survival skills. The guy once survived in the Moab desert by soaking a headband in his own urine and eating raw raven eggs, while most of his sniveling critics wouldn last 15 minutes without wireless internet. But this amazing guy has survived far worse things than a little bad press, and should risk his life for our enjoyment for years to come. We hope.