Titanic passenger Fang Lang’s grandson revealed the true story of clinging to a door for survival, which inspired Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's famous scene in James Cameron's 1997 film.
ByMay 28, 2026 10:46 PM
| Updated May 28, 2026 10:48 PM
TagsJames Cameron Aims to End Titanic Door Debate for Good
One Titanic survivor didn't let go—and now his grandson is making sure his story goes on.
Steven Fong confirmed that his grandfather Fang Lang—who survived the real sinking of the Titanic in 1912 by clinging to a door after the boat sank in the Atlantic Ocean—was the inspiration for the iconic scene in the 1997 movie Titanic where Kate Winslet famously whispered to Leonardo DiCaprio, "I'll never let go, Jack."
As for how that moment went down in real life?
"With my grandfather's story, he actually went down with the ship," Fong told CBS News in a feature published May 26, explaining that "to everyone's amazement, he found his way onto a door."
Titanic fans may recognize Lang's name thanks to the film's director James Cameron, with Fong noting that the filmmaker "does reveal that my grandfather was the inspiration for the Jack and Rose end scene."
"It's such a surreal feeling being part of this legacy, this big story that everybody knows about." Fong said, adding, "We're just so humbled by the opportunity to kind of add that to the story."
According to Fong, his grandfather never spoke about being one of six Chinese immigrants to escape the shipwreck—a story also featured in a 2020 documentary called The Six—which left the family wondering about how the incident impacted him.
For Cameron, tapping into the mindset of the survivors, such as Lang, who died in 1986, was a crucial part of making the the movie that went on to win 11 Oscars.
Photo by CBS via Getty Images
"Titanic...says, 'What would you do if you had an hour or two to live? Would you sacrifice yourself?'" he expressed to E! News in 2012. "Would you be that hero? Would you be that guy like Jack or some of those men that put the woman and children onto the lifeboats?"
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