Volker Schlöndorff of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", starring Dustin Hoffman as Willy Loman and John Malkovich as Biff. Both actors won Emmys for their performances and Schlöndorff was nominated for an Emmy for his direction. The film premiered on television in 1985 and was released theatrically throughout Europe over the following years. Schlöndorff followed this with another TV movie in the US, "A Gathering of Old Men", based on the novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines. The film stars Richard Widmark, Holly Hunter and Lou Gossett Jr. and concerns racial discrimination in 1970s Louisiana. Schlöndorff returned to
Ying Ruocheng Theatre, particularly for his role as Pockmark Liu in Lao She's masterpiece "Teahouse" and as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman" in 1983, directed by Arthur Miller (Ying also translated the script). Ying was born in Beijing into a Manchu family. He studied in a church school in Tianjin in his early years, and later graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of Tsinghua University. He was forced into the provinces to perform manual labor during the Cultural Revolution. Ying is the author of a memoir, co-authored by Claire Conceison, "Voices Carry: Behind Bars and Backstage During China's Revolution