This is very sad, especially for his family. An interesting point about Steve Irwin is that he was, at least initially, more famous in America than in Australia. On my first trip to the USA in 1997, Americans were talking about him and I had no idea who he was. He was possibly too "over the top" for an Aussie audience (that sort of cheerful zaniness can come across as fake in such a laid-back country).

I read he was filming stock footage when he died, in between filming for the Ocean's Deadliest movie. His young daughter has a TV show and he was filming on a reef for her. That he had "no fear" was not a point in his favour when it comes to dealing with wild animals, and this time his luck ran out.