Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond died in 2017.
Bond was born Thomas Michael Bond in Newbury, Berkshire, England, in 1926. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked in film and television production, including at the BBC. He drew on memories of wartime evacuees and a lonely teddy bear near Paddington Station when developing the character who became Paddington Bear.
Bond’s first Paddington book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in 1958. The stories follow a polite bear from Darkest Peru who settles with the Brown family in London. Bond continued writing Paddington books for decades, while later television series and films introduced the character to new audiences.
Michael Bond died at his home in London on 27 June 2017, aged 91. A common mix-up is confusing Bond’s death year with the release years of the Paddington films: Paddington came out in 2014, and Paddington 2 followed in 2017.