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| Sunday, 03 August 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Gregory Peck one of the principal actors of the famous film 'Bridge on the River Kwai' filmed 1956/57 in Kitulgala Sri Lanka, died at age 87 about two months ago. He was a very handsome and debonair man as the picture shows. Many a Sri Lankan woman fell for his charms and many sought introductions to him. I had the pleasure of meeting him as a young man during a visit to the Peradeniya University, when I was working at the University Library. I was there in Peradeniya Botanical Gardens when some of the sequences were filmed on that part of the Gardens close to the River Mahaweli, near the Suspension Bridge. I had the pleasure of being introduced to David Lean, Jack Hawkins and Gregory Peck by a local member of the crew. They visited the Peradeniya University on one of their film shooting trips. I have had these pictures, carefully preserving them for nearly half a century and thought this was an appropriate time to release them to the public, after some interest was rekindled by Gregory Peck's recent death.
"The Bridge on the River Kwai' won several awards and was about the British prisoners of war who were forced to build a rail bridge in Burma during the Japanese occupation of Burma during World War II. It was directed by the great British Director David Lean, starring Gregory Peck, Alec Guiness and Jack Hawkins. The Bridge was blown up in a thrilling sequence about thwarting the Japanese General Yamamoto. It was a true incident in the gruelling sadistic, and monstrous Burmese Campaign by the Japanese armies of Emperor Hirohito and General Yamamoto. Fortunately Sri Lanka was spared these horrors. The Japs could not go beyond a few sorties of ariel bombing of Trincomalee and Colombo in 1942, thanks to British Wing Commander Birchall, who intercepted the Japanese planes. The Bridge was built over the Mahaweli at a very picturesque spot in Kitulgala near Avissawella. The pretty woman in the picture is Win Min Tang who played the female role opposite Gregory Peck. Shortly after the film, she became a Buddhist Nun. Will any one know of her whereabouts? Is she dead or alive in a Burmese (Myanmar) monastery, or back to civilian life. Will the local Mynamar Embassy oblige by providing some news of this heart throb of many a Sri Lankan of yesteryear? What of David Lean, Alex Guinness and Jack Hawkins? Will The British High Commission please oblige? There will be many hundreds who lived during this era and yet alive and will still be interested to know. - Amaradasa Fernando |
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