An appreciation of the Croc Hunter from a Wash Post reporter who had interviewed him:

All of which may be true, but it missed the real appeal of “Crocodile Hunter.” The concept — guy meets nature’s meanest — would not have worked, or worked as well, had Marlin Perkins or Jack Hannah been the host. Only a personality as vivid and exuberant as Irwin’s could have made the adventurer-among-the-beasts bit such compelling television.
American viewers, who saw the series on the Animal Planet channel, “got” Irwin immediately, I think. We’ve been trained to identify his type by a generation of Qantas airlines and Foster’s beer commercials and “Crocodile Dundee” movies. Irwin was another of those unpretentious, outdoorsy, can-do Aussie blokes who seem so much more “American” to Americans than the British ever will.
In person (or at least on the telephone, which is how I spoke with him and his wife, Terri), Irwin seemed a lot like he did on TV — amped-up, emphatic, sincere in his passion for preserving and protecting wildlife. He also sounded a bit humbled by his then-dawning TV career. Trained as a diesel mechanic (he never received a degree in any animal study), Irwin credited his love of the animal kingdom to his father, a plumber turned zookeeper. He said he never expected to be appearing on TV screens around the world.
One other thing: He really did say “crikey!” a lot.