When it comes to Sun Daolin, many people will think of Li Company Commander in "Reconnaissance Across the River", Xiao Jianqiu in "Early Spring and February", Li Xia in "The Undying Airwaves", and Gao Juexin in "Home"...
He is an all-round talent who compiles, directs and acts, he is the common memory of generations in the history of Chinese film, and every character he portrays has become a classic and legend on the Chinese film stage.
Recently, Yuhua has been looking through the old man's "Reconnaissance Across the River" and "Early Spring and February", and has to sigh that whether he plays a soldier or an intellectual youth, his elegant temperament will unconsciously radiate from the inside out, which is impressive.
Sun Daolin, whose ancestral home is Jiashan, Zhejiang Province, was born in 1921 in a scholarly family in Beijing. His father, Sun Wenyao, is a civil engineer who returned from studying in Belgium in his early years, and his mother, Fan Nianhua, is from a prominent family in Jiashan.
Eight-year-old Sun Daolin is at home in Beijing
Although Sun Daolin was an introvert when he was a child, he was a little rebellious.
Because he felt that the hutong was too narrow and the school atmosphere was silent and rigid, he often flew into the fields with a homemade Dapeng kite after class.
In his anthology "Into the Sunshine", he also mentioned an incident when he was a child: his older siblings joked with him, pushed him out of the house, and bolted the door to prevent him from entering.
He was anxious, cried and smashed the glass on the door with his small fist. Although there was still blood on his hand, he reached out and unbolted the deadbolt and walked into the house.
Introverted and gentle but full of passion, Sun Daolin already had the shadow of growing up at this time.
12-year-old Sun Daolin at home in Beijing
On the other hand, the father, as an intellectual, was very strict with his children, and did not allow Sun Daolin to go out on the street to play with children.
Sun Daolin can only have fun at home, such as chatting with snails in flower beds. Then one day, he discovered a very interesting place in the family - his father's library.
Since then, he has been fascinated by reading, and he often discusses the characters and stories in books with his father, developing his calm, rigorous and thoughtful personality. Sometimes father and son will talk about the current story, such as Zhan Tianyou, which planted a complex for Sun Daolin to direct the movie "Zhan Tianyou" in the future.
Sun Daolin in middle school takes a group photo with teachers and students
Reading created Sun Daolin's talent, and with this talent, he was admitted to the famous Yenching University at the age of 17 and became a member of the Department of Philosophy.
Originally, he was silent and introverted, and his relationship with philosophy can be described as a fish in water, so how did he step into the door of theater art?
In 1938, Sun Daolin, a first-year university student, was in Yenching University
This is about Sun Daolin's lifelong friend Huang Zongjiang.
Huang Zongjiang is a famous screenwriter and director. He and Sun Daolin met in a small time, and later studied together at Yenching University. Because Huang Zongjiang loves drama, he organized the "Yanjing Opera Club" with his classmates after entering Yenching University.
Screenwriter and director Huang Zongjiang
Once, the Yanjing Opera Society planned to rehearse Cao Yu's classic play "Thunderstorm", because of the lack of actors, Huang Zongjiang hoped to put his friend Sun Dao on top.
However, because Sun Daolin had no acting experience before, when he was talking to the words, his voice would be higher and lower, so he still did not appear on stage in the end, but Huang Zongjiang left him in the drama club to help.
In this way, Sun Daolin did drama affairs and scene record work while acting in the stands, and gradually figured out some acting feelings.
Later, when he starred as a paralegal in the one-act drama "Outside the Window", he was no longer the Sun Daolin who stumbled on his lines, and his performance was very calm and generous, his tall and handsome appearance, and his deep voice made the audience remember him at once.
Sun Daolin made his first appearance on stage
This was Sun Daolin's first performance on stage, and it was a huge success, which quickly made him a dashing boy in the school. As a result, Sun Daolin put down his philosophy book and plunged headlong into acting drama to learn drama theory.
However, the gunfire of the war shattered Sun Daolin's theatrical dream. In December 1941, Yenching University was forced to close, and Sun Daolin lost his studies. At the same time, his father fell ill and the family became increasingly destitute, making life unsustainable.
However, the trapped Sun Daolin did not feel self-pity, he resolutely ran to the suburbs to become a sheep herd, raise sheep to milk cows, and support himself.
In those days of sheep farming, Sun Daolin was both a farmer and a buyer, raising and selling, usually mowing grass for feed in the morning, milking and bottled in the afternoon, and cycling to sell goat's milk in the evening.
In an interview with Art Life, he also mentioned that Swiss dairy sheep were raised at that time, with high yield and good nutrition.
However, after raising for a year, Sun Daolin gave up. Because he found that he still liked acting, he put down the whip of shepherding and returned to the theater stage.
During this period, he has successively entered the China Travel Theater Company, Shanghai Guohua Drama Society, and successfully created Zhou Ping in "Thunderstorm", Count Kilai in "La Traviata", Jue Hui in "Home", Fang Dasheng and George Zhang in "Sunrise", Zheng Chenggong in "Ge Nenniang" and other characters, and became famous.
Until 1948, Sun Daolin starred in "The Great Reunion", which was his first film to participate in, and he has since embarked on the road of film acting.
From the early days of the film, book anger is his most distinctive feature, such as the Chinese teacher in "The Crow and the Sparrow", the protagonist Fang Zheren in "Democratic Youth March" and other intellectual young characters, all give people a gentle temperament.
Later, Sun Daolin successfully transformed because of a "Reconnaissance Across the River". The company commander Li played by him in it is handsome and restrained, witty and brave, completely breaking the audience's inherent impression of the rough and simple soldiers, making people feel that the original military image can also be richer and more knowledgeable.
The role of "Company Commander Li" made Sun Daolin fire all over the country, but he encountered a life problem.
At that time, he had not yet found a favorite partner in his thirties, and the idea of getting married had been hovering in his mind, and he gradually became a "big problem" among friends and family.
It was not until the spring of 1958, under the guidance of "Moon Lao" Huang Zongjiang, that Sun Daolin met the founder of the "Wang School" of Yue Opera, and later became the love of his life, Wang Wenjuan. That year, Sun Daolin was 37 years old and Wang Wenjuan was 32 years old.
This relationship seems to be a matchmaker, but in fact, fate is predestined.
Before the two met, Wang Wenjuan was a fan of Sun Daolin, she liked to watch each other's plays very much, and she was very happy when she learned that she introduced Sun and herself.
And Sun Daolin is also a fan of Yue Opera, he especially likes "Dream of the Red Mansion", "Liang Zhu", "Chasing Fish" and "West Wing" starring Wang Wenjuan, which can be said to be a must-see for every performance, and he has to sit in the front row.
Wang Wenjuan's appearance as Daiyu in the Yue Opera "Dream of the Red Mansion"
In the early days of their relationship, Wang Wenjuan's fame was not very great, but Sun Daolin was quite famous. When they were dating in Beihai Park, Sun Daolin was often asked for autographs by fans.
Later, after both became public figures, they had to choose to meet at night because it was inconvenient to go to the street during the day. Once, they walked from Huashan Road to Fuxing Road in Shanghai, and from Fuxing Road to Huashan Road, and so on, back and forth, and it was difficult to separate. This past was later jokingly called by Wang Wenjuan Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai's "eighteen send-offs".
In the year of marriage, Sun Daolin was 39 years old and Wang Wenjuan was 34 years old.
In this way, they have been in the same boat for more than 40 years. Even though Sun Daolin suffered from memory loss due to illness in his later years, choking up and saying that "the Sun Daolin you know is gone", he still dedicated all his remaining memory to his lover Wang Wenjuan.
Host Cao Kefan recalled interviewing Sun Daolin
Some netizens said: "Sun Daolin forgot time, but we will not forget him." Indeed, Mr. Sun Daolin's screen image is a symbol of the times, and his figure will never fade.