Sayun Chantanarat was born in Bangkok in November, 1961. His father was an employee of the State Railway of Thailand who played saxophone in the railway workers’ club band. His mother was an illiterate housewife who sold homemade meals for extra pocket money.
Sayun’s parents separated when he was a child, and he was brought up mostly by an uncle and grandmother.
A self-described “bad kid”, Sayun was expelled from his first school for beating up a classmate who had looked down on him for being poor. He dropped out of his second school after completing seventh grade.
In 1973, at the age of 13, Sayun found himself hustling for tips washing and looking after cars in the parking lot of central Bangkok’s Indra Complex, which comprised the Indra Regent Hotel, Pata Department Store, and Indra Theater. Of these, only the hotel still exists.
One day, he was approached by an older Englishman he had said hello to in the parking lot over the previous several days. The man asked him if he could swim, and when Sayun responded that he could, asked him if he wanted to be in a movie.
That movie turned out to be The Man with the Golden Gun, and the part that Sayun eventually won over six other boys chosen to screen test was that of the wooden elephant vendor who interacts with Roger Moore’s Bond on Bangkok’s waterways.
Sayun had never acted before, and has never acted since. His lines were fed to him phonetically, and the scenes in which he appeared took just a few takes to capture on a single day in May 1973. He was paid 250 baht for the day’s work – a bit over $10 at the time. His parents were not consulted, and there were no contracts, releases, or other formalities.
Sayun saw his face on screen for the first time at the Indra Theater the next year, when the film debuted. His family did not believe his wild story and never saw it. There were no press junkets, no interviews, no credit.
After dropping out of school the next year, Sayun held a number of jobs – managing the popular “Rooks” billiards parlor, smuggling computer mainboards from Singapore, and helping perform Customs formalities for a shipping company. He was arrested four times – for truancy, fighting, and eventually, in the 80s, for selling ecstasy tablets. For that crime, he spent 14 days in Bangkok’s notorious Klong Prem Prison.
Sayun has also had a number of health challenges over the years, having endured multiple surgeries for congenital abdominal and heart defects.
Today, Sayun lives on a small pension of 3,100 baht – around $80 – plus whatever he can make performing odd jobs, such as making deliveries by motorcycle. He still lives with his brother in the home they grew up in Bangkok’s Bang Na District.
Check out our five-part interview with Sayun here: