Nicolas Noxon was a writer and producer best known for his work on the National Geographic specials Tigers of the Snow and Secrets of the Titanic. The latter included the first images of the ocean liner’s wreckage and also served as inspiration for James Cameron’s 1997 feature film.
Noxon was a two-time Emmy Award winner, for episode “The Great Whales” and for Tigers of the Snow. He was considered a pioneer in nonfiction television, and was also the recipient of a Peabody Award.
Additionally, Noxon contributed to the series Biography, Hollywood and the Stars, Men in Crisis, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, and World of Discovery.
He worked on many National Geographic television specials over the course of his career, including the weather and natural occurrence documentaries Volcano: Nature’s Inferno, Avalanche: The White Death, and Asteroids: Deadly Impact. He also contributed to documentaries on the animal kingdom, including Secrets of the Wild Panda, The Dragons of Galapagos, Island of the Giant Bears, Sea Monsters: Search for the Giant Squid, Dolphins: The Wild Side, Realm of the Alligator, Zebras: Patterns in the Grass, and America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-bye.
Additionally, he worked on the destination documentaries Braving Alaska, Russia’s Last Tsar, China: Beyond the Clouds, Cyclone!, Arctic Kingdom: Life at the Edge, Okavango: Africa's Savage Oasis, as well as Search for the Submarine I-52, Power of Water, and Ancient Graves: Voices of the Dead.
During his work with National Geographic, Noxon and his team won 58 Emmy Awards. His 1985 expedition to the North Atlantic to explore the Titanic’s wreckage became the most popular project of his career.
Born in London, Noxon grew up in Canada and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. His father, Gerald Noxon, was a writer who founded Boston University's film school. The younger Noxon, however, studied film at Antioch College in Ohio. In 1960, Noxon moved to Los Angeles and joined Wolper Productions. He became a producer and writer for the original Biography series hosted by Mike Wallace.
Noxon later wrote and produced the first three National Geographic specials for CBS in the early 1960s. Then in 1966, he and his business partner Irwin Rosten organized the documentary department at MGM, the first organization of its kind at a major studio.
In 2009, he was the recipient of the International Documentary Association's Pioneer Award.
He also authored a book about his mother, Betty Lane: A Painter’s Life, taken from her memoirs.
His daughter is Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer and producer Marti Noxon.
Nicolas Noxon died May 3, 2016, in Westlake Village, California. He died 79.
