Trivia

He was leader of the 1963 American Mt. Everest Expedition which placed the first four Americans on it's summit.

He became a U.S. citizen after serving in the Army during WWII, and became a film professor at UCLA while shooting TV series and planning climbing trips on the side.

He never got a chance to reach the summit of Mt Everest himself, but the expedition he led and filmed became a sensation in the United States. His "Americans on Everest" documentary aired on CBS, becoming National Geographic's first TV special, and he and his team visited the White House, and appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

He grew up in Austria and Switzerland. His parents, Günter Oskar and Hettie, were skilled climbers who made early ascents of Himalayan peaks and glaciers. His mother held the world record for highest climb by a woman for 20 years.