著名导演谢晋于10月18日凌晨浙江上虞市去世，享年85岁。谢老17日傍晚抵达上虞参加母校上虞市春晖中学建校100周年庆典。18日早上，谢晋下榻的酒店服务员发现，谢晋已经停止呼吸。

　　Famed Chinese film director Xie Jin died early on Saturday at 84 in the eastern Zhejiang Province.

　　A hotel waiter in Shangyu City found Xie in his room at around 7:40 a.m. and discovered he had stopped breathing, according to the publicity department of the city's Communist Party committee.

　　The cause of death remained unclear.

　　Born in November 1923, he was a native of Shangyu in Zhejiang. He arrived in the city on Friday evening to attend the 100th anniversary of the founding of his alma mater -- Chunhui Middle School.

　　Xie, who made his film directing debut in 1957 with the acclaimed "Woman Basketball Player No. 5," went on to create other popular features such as "The Red Detachment of Women," "The Herdsman," "Legend of Tianyun Mountain," "The Opium War" and "Hibiscus Town." He was active in directing until 2001 with his last film "Woman Soccer Player No. 9."

　　The Herdsman, shown in 1982, registered a record 150 million spectators. Three times his films won the Golden Rooster, a top award in the Chinese film industry.

　　"Xie Jin is irreplaceable! The Chinese film industry dims with the departure of him," said Prof. Zheng Dongtian of Beijing Film Academy.

　　Almost every film directed by Xie was iconic during different periods since 1950s, remarked writer Zhang Xianliang