In the early morning of July 17, 2000, zhao Lirong, a famous critic and sketch actor, passed away.
Now, 22 years later, Zhao Lirong's influence is still great, and the audience can still clearly remember her various classic roles on the stage.
For example, the che chi king in 1986's "Journey to the West", the mother in the 1991 movie "New Year", and the old lady in the 1996 Spring Festival Gala sketch "The Adventure of Part-time Work".
Almost all of Zhao Lirong's life was dedicated to art.
As early as 1929, when she was only 1 year old, she was carried to the stage to perform "color dolls", and there are probably few child stars who debuted at this age.
Of course, this is actually related to Zhao Lirong's father, Zhao Bingzhong.
Zhao Bingzhong is a dress artist who is specially responsible for the costume styling of the drama team, and it is because of him that 1-year-old Zhao Lirong has the opportunity to "perform on stage".
However, at that time, Zhao Lirong was not called the current name, but used the nickname "Old Love" given by her mother Meng Yunde.
Zhao Lirong, born in 1928, is the daughter of the family, and her eldest sister Furong Hua is also a drama critic, born in 1911, 17 years older than her.
The name Zhao Lirong was given to her by her eldest sister Furong Hua when she was 12 years old.
Her father is a dresser, her eldest sister is a drama critic, and Zhao Lirong can be said to have been born in a family of opera, and it is not surprising that she later became a drama critic and sketch actress.
In the 1960s, it was the peak of Zhao Lirong's drama critic career, and many classic works were produced, such as "Little Erhei Marriage", "Yang Sanjie's Complaint" and so on.
During this time, she also cooperated with another famous critic, Xin Fengxia, many times.
However, after all, the drama is not a public entertainment, and although Zhao Lirong is very famous in the drama critics, it is far from being a household name.
What really makes Zhao Lirong popular all over the country is the movies and skits she participated in, especially the skits, with the help of the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, Zhao Lirong has become a "familiar guest" in the eyes of the national audience.
But compared with other sketch actors, Zhao Lirong entered the industry late, and her first time on the Spring Festival Gala was in 1988, when she was already 60 years old.
60 years old to the Spring Festival Gala, it is not too much to describe it as "a big instrument late".
But before that, Zhao Lirong actually had a certain degree of popularity nationwide, because in the "Journey to the West" released in 1986, Zhao Lirong had a cameo appearance, playing the Che Chi King Queen in it.
Che Chiguo's scene is wonderful in the whole "Journey to the West", and the kind of shocked look shown by the queen is even more memorable to the audience.
Because of filming this play, Zhao Lirong also became acquainted with Sun Wukong's actor Zhang Jinlai (that is, a six-year-old child), who worshiped Zhao Lirong as a dry bride.
In addition to Zhang Jinlai, Zhao Lirong also accepted the sketch actor Gong Hanlin as gan's son, and the painter Li Yi as gan's daughter.
With two dry sons and one dry daughter, why is Zhao Lirong so "overflowing with maternal love", is it because she has no biological children?
Of course not, Zhao Lirong not only has her own children, but also has 4.
She was married twice, the first marriage gave birth to two sons, the second marriage gave birth to a son and a daughter, but unfortunately the daughter died when she was 7 years old, so Zhao Lirong's only adult daughter was the adopted painter Li Yi.
Zhao Lirong's first husband was also a theater worker, with the surname Sheng Mingqiang.
In 1953, the 25-year-old Zhao Lirong married Sheng Qiang, and two years later gave birth to her eldest son, Sheng Daming, and two years later, she gave birth to her next son, Sheng Fuchun.
At that time, Zhao Lirong and her husband were working in the drama team, and the income was acceptable, so in that difficult era, the family of four was still happy and harmonious.
Unfortunately, in 1960, Sheng Qiang died unexpectedly while working, leaving Zhao Lirong and her 5-year-old eldest son and 3-year-old second son to live together.
Fortunately, Sheng Qiang's brother Sheng Hong took care of the mother and son three, and with the support of the little uncle, Zhao Lirong successfully survived the most difficult years.
Perhaps out of gratitude to Xiao Shenghong, or because of the deep feelings accumulated over the years, in 1964, Zhao Lirong, who had been widowed for 4 years, married her younger uncle Shenghong.
Brothers marrying the same wife is not uncommon in ancient China.
In ancient times, it was important to pay attention to "marrying a chicken with a chicken, marrying a dog with a dog", as long as you pass through the door, it is the person of that family, according to this principle, after the death of the elder brother, the younger brother marries the sister-in-law is also a natural thing.
However, Zhao Lirong's marriage to Sheng Hong was definitely not out of this kind of thinking, after all, it had already entered the new China at that time, and such an old idea had long been swept away.
After marrying Sheng Hong, Zhao Lirong gave birth to her third son, Sheng Qian.
Compared with ordinary half-brothers, Sheng Qian and Sheng Daming and Sheng Fuchun are more close in blood, because their fathers are brothers in law.
Coupled with the fact that they have lived together since childhood, their feelings for each other must be no less than those of their brothers.
In 1970, Zhao Lirong also gave birth to a daughter for Sheng Hong.
For this only precious daughter, Zhao Lirong is very precious, but unfortunately her daughter died short-lived and died at the age of 7.
When her daughter died, Zhao Lirong was 49 years old, and at this age she could almost be a grandmother, so naturally it was impossible to continue to have children, so Zhao Lirong also confessed her fate and knew that she was destined to have no daughter.
Fortunately, she also has a dry daughter Li Yi, and Zhao Lirong, who lost her own daughter, cast more maternal love on Li Yi.
Because of this, in 2007, just seven years after Zhao Lirong's death, Li Yi, a painter in the United States, also specially took her husband to hold a painting exhibition to commemorate her mother Zhao Lirong.
Zhao Lirong's second husband, Sheng Hong, died in 1984 from a sudden heart attack.
Sheng Hong's death brought a great blow to Zhao Lirong, fortunately, at that time, the 3 sons had grown up, and Zhao Lirong's own acting career also ushered in a peak.
In order to resolve the pain of bereavement, Zhao Lirong devoted most of her energy to sketches and movies, thus creating many classic works.
The works mentioned at the beginning were all created during this time.
Like many old artists, Zhao Lirong is very dedicated when filming.
When a scene was filmed, it was winter, the temperature was as low as minus 22 degrees, and Zhao Lirong was asked to cup the fire bare-chested, and she was more than 60 years old without saying a word and personally went to battle.
As a result, because of the severe frostbite, I fell into a coughing problem.
In 1996, when she cooperated with her son Gong Hanlin on "The Adventure of Part-time Work", Zhao Lirong's body was actually very problematic.
On the stage, she even sat down for a while and could not stand up, but fortunately, another actress had a clever move, and she found a way to help her up.
In the last few years of her life, Zhao Lirong was tormented by illness for many years, but she still insisted on creating.
In 1999, the 71-year-old Zhao Lirong appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala for the last time, performing the skit "The Veteran Goes Out", what many people did not know at the time was that Zhao Lirong was already very ill, and even worried that she could not get on stage before the performance.
Later, although she barely completed the performance, the whole person had collapsed, and after stepping off the stage, she was helped to the side to rest.
In early 2000, Zhao Lirong was diagnosed with lung cancer.
As soon as the news came out, many stars in the show business circle came to visit, but Zhao Lirong refused the kindness of most people and only wanted to be alone in the hospital quietly.
When the sketch actor Cai Ming mentioned Zhao Lirong's condition, he said with a heavy heart: She did not allow us to visit her, afraid of causing trouble to people and making people sad in vain.
On July 17, 2000, Zhao Lirong closed her eyes forever.
After she died, Gan's son Gong Hanlin cried loudly, and the three biological sons, as well as Gan's sons Zhang Jinlai and Gan's daughter Li Yi, also wept and mourned.
Although there is no direct evidence that Zhao Lirong's lung cancer is related to the sequelae of coughing left by frostbite a few years ago, it is undeniable that the deterioration of her condition is related to high-intensity work.
From this point of view, Zhao Lirong is using her life to create excellent works for everyone, and she dedicates her life to art.
On July 17, 2022, Zhao Lirong's second son, Sheng Fuchun, returned to his old mansion to mourn his mother and posted a video online.
With the wide dissemination of the video, many talents suddenly found that it had been exactly 22 years since the old artist Zhao Lirong left us.
Time does pass quickly, but no matter how fast, it can't wash away the audience's thoughts about Zhao Lirong, as well as those classic works and her artistic achievements.