Titanic Survivor's Grandson Speaks About His Grandfather Inspiring the Most Iconic Scene in the Film

Titanic, the iconic 1997 film directed by James Cameron, was inspired by the famous shipwreck in 1912. Although the movie blends facts with fiction, one of the most famous scenes from the film, where Jack and Rose cling to a door in the ocean, was based on a true story.

Fang Lang was the inspiration behind this memorable moment. His grandson, Steven Fong, recently spoke with CBS News about the film. "With my grandfather's story, he actually went down with the ship, and to everyone's amazement, he found his way onto a door," Fong explained. "In the theatrical movie, James Cameron does reveal that my grandfather was the inspiration for the Jack and Rose end scene."

The movie that Fong is referencing is The Six, which was executive-produced by Cameron. It told the stories of a group of Chinese survivors of the ship. They were Lang, Lee Bing, Chang Chip, Ah Lam, Chung Foo, and Ling Hee.

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According to PEOPLE, Lang never spoke about the incident with his family members. "Fong's late grandfather was one of eight Chinese passengers who boarded the luxury steamer to cross the Atlantic, of which only six survived," the outlet reported. "Eventually, Fang made his way back to the U.S., got married and had two children ... He died in 1985 at the age of 90. It wasn't until two decades later that his son, Tom, learned about his survival story from a family member."

When speaking about the infamous door scene with The Toronto Sun, Cameron said, "We have since done a thorough forensic analysis with a hypothermia expert who reproduced the raft from the movie. We took two stunt people who were the same body mass of Kate [Winslet] and Leo [DiCaprio] and we put sensors all over them and inside them and we put them in ice water, and we tested to see whether they could have survived through a variety of methods, and the answer was, there was no way they both could have survived. Only one could survive."

Winslet agreed. She told Josh Horowitz, "I have to be honest, right. I actually don't believe that we would have survived if we had both gotten on that door. I think he could have fit but it would have tipped and it would not have been a sustainable idea."

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This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 2:50 PM.