Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear
Paddington character
Statue of Paddington eating a sandwich in Leicester Square, London
First appearance	A Bear Called Paddington 13 October 1958
Created by	Michael Bond
In-universe information
Alias	Paddington
Species	Spectacled bear
Gender	Male
Family	Aunt Lucy Uncle Pastuzo Mary Brown Henry Brown Jonathan Brown Judy Brown Mrs Bird
Origin	Peru
Nationality	Peruvian

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book A Bear Called Paddington and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond, and illustrated by Peggy Fortnum, David McKee, R. W. Alley and other artists.^[1]

The friendly spectacled bear from "darkest Peru" – with his old hat, battered suitcase, duffel coat and love of marmalade sandwiches – has become a classic character in children's literature.^[2] An anthropomorphised bear, Paddington is always polite – addressing people as "Mr", "Mrs" and "Miss" but rarely by first names – and kindhearted, though he inflicts hard stares on those who incur his disapproval.^[3] He has an endless capacity for innocently getting into trouble, but he is known to "try so hard to get things right". He was discovered in London Paddington station by the (human) Brown family who adopted him and named him "Paddington Brown," as his original name in bear language was too hard for them to pronounce.

Paddington has become one of the most beloved British fictional characters—a Paddington Bear stuffed toy was chosen by British tunnellers as the first item to pass through to their French counterparts when the two sides of the Channel Tunnel were linked in 1994.^[4] Paddington books have been translated into 30 languages across 70 titles and have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. As of June 2016, the Paddington Bear franchise was owned by Vivendi's StudioCanal. Bond, however, continued to own the publishing rights to his series, which was licensed to HarperCollins in April 2017.^[5]

Paddington Bear has been adapted for television, films and commercials since its first appearance on the BBC in 1966. Television adaptations include Paddington broadcast from 1976 to 1980. The critically acclaimed and commercially successful films Paddington (2014) and Paddington 2 (2017) were both nominated for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. A third film in the series, Paddington in Peru, began filming in July 2023.^[6]