Boy

Boy was one of the lions who appeared in Born Free, the 1966 film of Joy Adamson’s book about the lioness Elsa. After filming, George Adamson, Joy’s husband, took Boy and a lioness called Girl to return them to the wild in Kenya, the start of his life’s work of rehabilitating captive lions.

In 1970 Adamson moved to Kora, beside the Tana River, and Boy became the old male of a new pride there. When the young Christian arrived from London that year, Adamson introduced him to Boy, and the older lion accepted him; together with young lionesses they formed the Kora pride, the story told in the film Christian the Lion.

Boy was later badly injured, and after his recovery he became unpredictable. In 1971 he attacked and fatally wounded Adamson’s assistant, Stanley, and Adamson shot him, an episode that weighed on him for the rest of his life. Christian became the leading male of the pride after Boy’s death.