Aself-taught environmentalist, Bob Nixon spent more than 15 years behind the camera lens producing films and television programs depicting some of the earth's most endangered ecosystems and species. In 1992, he stepped out from behind the camera, taking the reins of the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), a nonprofit organization that teaches disadvantaged youth job skills by putting them to work cleaning up the environment. Since then, ECC members have attempted to restore the natural balance of the heavily polluted Anacostia River, which runs through the nation's capital. Nixon intended to spend a year on the project, but more than a dozen years later he remains the group's impassioned leader. "I came here because I thought, you know, point out the problem, and the cavalry would arrive and I'd go back to making feature films," he told CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley. "I'm still waiting for the cavalry, you know?"
Nixon was born around 1954. His father, Robert, was an executive with Chrysler and his mother, Agnes, created the famed daytime drama All My Children. Raised in a Philadelphia suburb, Nixon took an early interest in nature. He struggled through school—graduating next to last in his high school class—and believes he is dyslexic. Nixon aspired to be a wildlife photographer and relocated to England to study falconry, which is the ancient art of training raptors to hunt game. Afterward, he trained birds for film and television appearances. Through this work Nixon made connections in the entertainment industry and by 1976 was producing programming for ABC-TV's American Sportsman series.
In 1979, Nixon traveled to Rwanda to produce a documentary about famed zoologist Dian Fossey. Nixon asked the gorilla activist if he could make a movie about her life. Fossey told him yes, so long as he dedicated one year of his life to an environmental project. Fossey was murdered in 1985 and Nixon told her story in the 1988 feature film Gorillas in the Mist. Nixon co-produced the movie, which starred Sigourney Weaver. He also directed 1989's Amazon Diary, which earned an Academy Award nomination for best live-action short film.


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