Thousands of people bid farewell on Thursday to Sun Daolin, a well-known actor and director, who died of illness last week in Shanghai.

Sun died on Dec. 28 at the age of 86, reportedly of heart attack at the Huadong Hospital in Shanghai.

Nearly 10,000 mourners -- most of them Sun's fans -- queued to get into a shrine decorated with roses and a huge portrait of Sun to pay their last respect to the late Chinese film artist on Thursday morning at the Longhua Funeral Home in Shanghai.

A portrait of well-known Chinese actor, vocal artist and director Sun Daolin is hung in the middle of the mourning hall set up in honour of Sun in Shanghai Jan. 3, 2008. Sun died of an unspecified illness at age 86 in Shanghai on last Friday.  (photo: Xinhua)

Covered with a flag of Communist Party of China, Sun rest in red roses with the music of his favorite musician Franz Seraphicus Peter Schubert echoing in the hall.

In his eulogy, Wang Yuntian, vice president of Shanghai Film Group Corporation, hailed Sun's "monumental influence on the Chinese film and noble character" and promised to realize Sun's last will of holding an exhibition of his film.

"He is an artist of the people. The roles he played reflected the real life of the common people in China," said Wang.

A woman puts flowers in front of the remains of well-known Chinese actor, vocal artist and director Sun Daolin during a mourning ceremony in Shanghai Jan. 3, 2008.

"Sun is an icon for our fans forever. He is so different from nowadays movie stars, who care more about fame than performance," said a woman mourner in her fifties, who only gave her surname as Zhang.

Top Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, former President Jiang Zemin and Premier Wen Jiabao had extended condolence to Sun's family, according to the Shanghai municipal department of publicity.

Born in Beijing in 1921, Sun began his career as a stage and film actor in the 1940s and appeared in about 100 movies and plays. He was most popular among people who are now in their 1950s and '60s.

He also did Chinese voice-overs for a dozen foreign films, including Hamlet.

He was given an award for his contribution to China's film industry in 1995, the 90th anniversary of domestic cinema.

A portrait of well-known Chinese actor, vocal artist and director Sun Daolin is hung in the middle of the mourning hall for Sun in Shanghai Jan. 3, 2008.

Starting 1984, Sun directed films, such as Architect Zhan Tianyou, which won him a top award for fiction film in China in 2001.

Sun retired from acting when he was 84. He last appeared in public at the funeral of Chen Shu, another renowned Chinese actor, in October 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)