Remembering Lin Dai 林 黛
Born: 26 December 1934 & Died: 17 July 1964
Fifty-nine years ago today, Lin Dai 林 黛 committed suicide. She was 29 years old, at the height of her career. Her death sent shock waves through Chinese communities all over the world. It's hard to overestimate the impact. I can still recall the sense of utter disbelief when the news broke.
Lin Dai seemed to have everything going for her. Her movies were guaranteed box office hits, artistically as well as commercially top notch. She seemed to radiate happiness whatever she did. On camera, she seemed to glow. Even in private life she was vibrant and charming. Why did she want to die? There had been a trivial family misunderstanding but nothing to suggest suicide. She was given a proper Catholic funeral, since the bishop ruled that her death wasn't intentional.
To this day, fans flock to give their respects at her pink marble tombstone. After her death, her husband Lung Shun-shing kept their room exactly as she had left it, with her hair in her hairbrush and her lipsticks on the dressing table. When he died a few years ago, the room was preserved intact in a museum.
Linda Lin Dai 遴 带
The original screen goddess of Mandarin-language films, Linda Lin Dai was born as Cheng Yue Ru to a politician’s family in Guangxi, China. Lin migrated to Hong Kong with her family in 1948. She joined Yung Hwa Motion Picture in 1952 after leaving the Great Wall Pictures Corporation, where she joined a year earlier, and made her big-screen debut in Singing Under The Moon. The film made her an instant success.
For the next decade, Lin’s star would burn with ferocious brightness as she won the hearts of audiences with more than 40 films. Off the screen, she married tycoon Lung Shun-shing in 1961 at the age of 26. Lin won over the critics by winning an unprecedented four Best Actress awards at the Asian Film Festival for The Golden Lotus, Diau Charn, Les Belles and Love Without End during her career.
Sadly, she committed suicide in 1964, leaving behind two unfinished films, The Lotus Lamp and The Blue And The Black (I and II). In 1995, Linda Lin Dai was the only Mandarin movie star featured in the Hong Kong Movie Stars stamp collection released by the Hong Kong Post Office. It is an evident that Linda Lin Dai is still living in the hearts of many Chinese audiences even though she has passed away for almost forty years.
Hong Kong actress Lin Dai’s tragic suicide in 1964
Fans in shock after actress dies from an overdose of sleeping pills & inhalation of methane gas just a few months short of her 30th birthday
“Film Star Dies In Gas-Filled Bedroom,” ran a headline in the South China Morning Post on July 18, 1964.
The story continued: “Miss Lin Dai, the well-known Mandarin actress, was found unconscious in her gas-filled bedroom yesterday afternoon. She was certified dead on arrival in hospital.”
The 29-year-old star – who had won the best actress award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival four times – had been discovered by her husband, Lung Shun-shing, at their home in Jardine’s Lookout. On returning to the flat, he had found the door to his wife’s bedroom locked, the Post reported.
Why did Lin Dai, a 30-year-old four-time Asia-Pacific actress commit suicide?
On 17 July 1964, Hong Kong Shaw Brothers movie superstar Lin Dai took overdose of sleeping pills and turned on gas at her Happy Valley apartment to commit suicide. She was only 30 years old and her body was buried in Happy Valley Catholic Cemetery.
Since 1957, at the Asia Pacific Film Festival, the only international film festival in the Asia-Pacific region, Lin Dai has won 4 best actress awards. This honorary record has not been broken so far. Lin Dai debuted for 12 years, starred in nearly 50 movies, not only outstanding acting skills, created countless box office miracles, but also beautiful, exquisite body, there are countless fans and admirers. Therefore, when the news of Lin Dai's death came out, it shocked the global Chinese society at the time.
On the day of her funeral, countless Hong Kong movie fans took to the streets to see her off, and all were empty. The famous director of Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong, Li Hanxiang, expressed sorrow: Lin Dai’s suicide was the biggest loss of Chinese film industry after Ruan Lingyu. She is a star that the Chinese film industry could not find for decades.
Lin Dai
Linda Lin Dai (Chinese: 林 黛; 26 December 1934 – 17 July 1964), born Cheng Yueru (程 月 如), was a Chinese actress of Hong Kong films made in Mandarin during the 1950s–60s. She was a star actress of the Shaw Brothers Studio. She was the daughter of Cheng Siyuan (程 思 遠), the secretary of the KMT Chinese President Li Zongren, and Vice Chairman of the CPPCC.
Lin Dai was awarded the Best Actress at the Asia Pacific Film Festival four times for her performances in films produced by Shaw Studio. While she attended short courses on drama and linguistics at Columbia University, New York in 1958, she met and fell in love with Long Shengxun, the son of Long Yun who was a former governor of China's Yunnan province. They married on 12 February 1961 in Hong Kong.
She committed suicide at home in Hong Kong in July 1964, using an overdose of sleeping pills and inhalation of methane gas, due to family matters referred by the media as "trivial". Her death shocked the Chinese community. She left behind two unfinished films, The Lotus Lamp and Blue And Black.
