Deaths on February 4

Mike deGruy, American director, producer, and cinematographer (b. 1951)

Mike deGruy (December 29, 1951 – February 4, 2012) was an American documentary filmmaker specialising in underwater cinematography. His credits include Life in the Freezer, Trials of Life, The Blue Planet and Pacific Abyss. He was also known for his storytelling, including a passionate TED talk about his love of the ocean on the Mission Blue Voyage. His company, Film Crew Inc., specialized in underwater cinematography, filming for BBC, PBS, National Geographic, and The Discovery Channel. His notable accomplishments include diving beneath thermal vents in both the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean. He was a member of many deep sea expeditions and was a part of the team that first filmed the vampire squid and the nautilus.Mike deGruy was attacked on April 2, 1978 by a grey reef shark. He was severely bitten on his lower right forearm. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 impacted him and began his shift to environmental activism. He was also part of the Deepsea Challenge, where James Cameron went to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. In 2016, production began on a feature-film documentary about his life and work titled Diving Deep: The Life and Times of Mike deGruy. The documentary was released in 2020.