René Dahinden (August 22, 1930 – April 18, 2001) was a Canadian

Bigfoot Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a purported ape-like creature said to inhabit the forest of North America. Many dubious articles have been offered in attempts to prove the existence of Bigfoot, including anecdotal claims o ...

(Sasquatch) researcher. Dahinden circa 1956-001

Dahinden was born in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in October 1953, where he would live for the rest of his life. He became interested in the Bigfoot phenomenon shortly after arriving in Canada, and during the next few decades he conducted many field investigations and interviews throughout the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Dahinden was a major advocate for the controversial

Patterson–Gimlin film The Patterson–Gimlin film (also known as the Patterson film or the PGF) is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and h ...

, which was shot in 1967 and supposedly provides photographic evidence of Bigfoot. With Don Hunter, he co-wrote the book ''Sasquatch'', which was published in 1973 in a hardcover edition. In 1975, the book would be issued as a paperback. This title would then be revised and renamed in 1993 as ''Sasquatch/Bigfoot: The Search for North America's Incredible Creature, Revised Edition''. David Suchet's French Canadian Bigfoot-hunting character in the 1987 film ''

Harry and the Hendersons ''Harry and the Hendersons'' is a 1987 American fantasy comedy film directed and produced by William Dear and starring John Lithgow, Melinda Dillon, Don Ameche, David Suchet, Margaret Langrick, Joshua Rudoy, Lainie Kazan, and Kevin Peter Hall. ...

'' is based on Dahinden. For a year, Dahinden acted as spokesman for Kokanee beer, and appeared in commercials in Canada. Dahinden died of prostate cancer on April 18, 2001, in British Columbia. In an obituary in the ''National Post'', his friend Christopher Murphy remembered a remark of Dahinden's: "One day he said to me: 'You know, I've spent over 40 years – and I didn't find it. I guess that's got to say something.'"

External links

Obituary
, written by

Loren Coleman Loren Coleman (born July 12, 1947) is an American cryptozoologist who has written over 40 books on a number of topics, including the pseudoscience and subculture of cryptozoology. Early life Coleman was born in Norfolk, Virginia, and grew up in ...

Rene Dahinden on YouTube at The Sasquatch Archives
Cryptozoologists Swiss emigrants to Canada Bigfoot 1930 births 2001 deaths Writers from Alberta 20th-century Canadian zoologists {{zoologist-stub