Born Timothy Dexter. Classic narcissist. Reformed
alcoholic and drug addict, might not have entirely straightened out. Claimed, without verification, to have been the theoretical second choice for the role of Woody Harrelson's character, "Woody" Boyd, in Cheers. Became a wacky pseudo-environmentalist wingnutscrewballsup who travelled to
Alaska from round about 1990 to his death in 2003 to try to get ... close to ... bears. Documented his exploits on videocam, some of said footage making the guts of Werner Hertzog's biopic "Grizzly Man". Ended up doing a Michael
Jackson impression over steaming bear
shit. Came to believe he was the bears' last good hope, and started ranting on-camera against the wildlife service, humanity in general, et cetera.
In the
autumn of 2003 he tried heading back south to be with his family or other
friends; at the airport he got into a towering rage with somebody and failed to board the plane, instead returning to the Alaskan lake shore where he had spent the
summer. Unfortunately and despite his assumed
name, in so doing he didn't tread very well at all. In the meantime his favourite bear clan had all
gone into hibernation and another group had moved in to
time-share the place, where a few weeks later Treadwell was reminded of the six
basic relationships an animal species may have with other animals in the wild: you ignore it, it picks off your parasites, you pick off its parasites, you fuck it, you eat it, it eats you. This list included the last option, and unfortunately he had taken his latest girlfriend along for the ride as well. After the bears had dined on long pig to their hearts' content the park rangers arrived to collect the leftovers and shoot the bears.
Living proof (better still,
dead proof) that you shouldn't believe everything you see on Walt Disney movies.
