Jackie Chan's Father Dies Aged 93

More sad news broke today as the death of Fang Dao-long (房道龍), the father of Jackie Chan (成龍) and grandfather of Jaycee Chan (房祖名), was announced.

Fang celebrated his 93rd birthday in December of last year and both Jackie and Jaycee shared the occasion with him. He had recently been suffering from illness and was admitted into hospital for treatment, but he did not recover and died yesterday.

Jackie was filming in Beijing at the time of his father's death, so he was unable to share the final moments of Fang's life. However, Jackie's wife Joan Lin (林鳳嬌), Jaycee and Jackie's former manager Willie Chan (陳自強) were all by the old man's side when he passed away.

Fang, also known as Charles Chan (陳志平), originated from Shandong province before moving to Hong Kong during the war between the Communists and Nationalist parties. He found work as a cook for the American Consulate in Hong Kong, where his wife worked as a housemaid. The couple gave birth to Jackie, but when their employer relocated to Australia and they could not take their son with them, they had no choice but to leave him as a boarder at opera school when he was just six years old.

Reports indicate that the family plan to take Fang's body back to his home in Australia, where he will be buried with his wife and Jackie will be flying directly to Australia to complete his filial duties.

Jackie's assistant Ken Lo (盧惠光) said that Jackie has completed his filming work in Beijing now, so he will have time to mourn his father and make the funeral arrangements.

Jackie's good friend Simon Yam (任達華) expressed his sadness at the news of Fang's death and said that coupled with the news of Lydia Sum (沈殿霞)'s death last week, everyone is very downhearted, but it is comforting to know that they have gone somewhere very peaceful and he hoped that this will remind everyone to cherish their friends.

Sammo Hung (洪金寶) said that as a child he spent a lot of time with Fang and he believed that the old man was very happy at the duty and care that Jackie and Jaycee has shown him. However, Sammo said that he has not been in touch with Jackie for a long time now so he did not know what to say to him.