カトーの死

“Burt Kwouk, Pink Panther star, dies aged 85” http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36370997
Ben Child “Burt Kwouk, Cato from Pink Panther, dies age 85” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/24/burt-kwouk-cato-from-pink-panther-dies-age-85


ブレイク・エドワーズの『ピンク・パンサー』シリーズ*1クルーゾー警部ピーター・セラーズ)の使用人でエクセントリックな亜細亜人Catoの役で有名な俳優 Burt Kwouk(郭弼)*2が5月24日逝去した。享年85歳。彼は中国人の両親の下、英国のランカシャー州ワリントンで生まれ、17歳まで上海で育った。その後、米国留学を経て、英国に帰国し、主に中国人や日本人を演ずる役者としてキャリアを重ねていた。ほかに、代表作としては、007の『ゴールドフィンガー*3、『007は二度死ぬ*4、『カジノ・ロワイヤル』(1967年の)*5など。また、第二の故郷上海が舞台であるスピルバーグの『太陽の帝国*6にも出ていた。

太陽の帝国 [DVD]

太陽の帝国 [DVD]

Ronald Bergan “Burt Kwouk obituary”*7から;

Kwouk was born in Warrington, Lancashire, “because my mother happened to be there at the time,” but at 10 months old was taken back to the family home in Shanghai. There he remained until he was 17, when his well-off parents sent him to the US to study politics and economics. However, before he was able to graduate his parents lost all their money in the 1949 revolution, and he returned to Shanghai. A few years later, Kwouk took advantage of his dual nationality and returned to Britain, where he took various menial jobs before his girlfriend “nagged me into acting”. Capitalising on his oriental looks, he started getting roles mostly as villainous or comic Chinese or Japanese characters.
また、『テレグラフ』の”Burt Kwouk, actor – obituary”*8から;

Herbert Tsangtse Kwouk was born on July 18 1930 at Warrington while his parents were touring Europe. His father, a textile tycoon, was a descendant of a Tang dynasty general and Kwouk was brought up in the wealthy, mannered world of pre-war Shanghai. Between the ages of 12 and 16 he attended the Jesuit Mission School in the city, which he described as “the Far East equivalent of Eton”. He was then sent to the US to complete his education. He left China in 1947.

In 1949 Kwouk’s parents and sister were caught up in the Chinese revolution. Kwouk’s British passport enabled his mother and sister to leave for Hong Kong, but his father stayed in China. “I think my father supported the revolution,” Kwouk recalled, “because, morally, a person could not fail to support it: the mass of Chinese people were starving on the streets.”

He remained in America and continued his education until 1954 when he decided to tour Europe. Arriving in Britain he found a room in Ladbroke Grove and began looking for work. “I had no idea what I wanted to do,” he said, “but I went into catering because at least there you get to eat.” He worked as a dish-washer for Joe Lyons before moving on to a variety of jobs including mortuary attendant and later “butter-wrapper” at a factory in Clapham.

He spent his free time “hanging around the cheap end of Chelsea” with a group of friends. “We were the gestation period for the Swinging Sixties,” Kwouk explained. “We used to drink wine and talk about what we were going to do with our lives.”

After his girlfriend persuaded him that acting would make a suitable career and arranged for Kwouk to have some publicity photographs, he auditioned and got the part of a Malayan in Windom’s Way (1957), having persuaded the casting director that he spoke fluent Malay (he did not).

Kwoukは広東語の読み方だが(マンダリンではGuo)、これは親が広東人ということ?