Titanic is an iconic film and re-telling of the real-life harrowing tragedy that happened to the RMS Titanic in 1912. While Jack and Rose weren’t based on any of the real people, many minor characters were. Unfortunately, many of their stories were cut out and remain as deleted scenes. Directed by big-budget Hollywood giant James Cameron, this was one of his crowning achievements that helped pave the road to Avatar and more.
This historical fiction film merges disaster and romance in the best way possible. It tells the love story of Jack and Rose, who meet on the same ship but hail from different social classes. They also interact with many other characters from various social classes as well. Here are all the true passenger stories beyond Rose and Jack that were cut from the movie, but deserve to be honored.
Isidor & Ida Straus
Amongst the deleted scenes in Titanic is a sequence that shows the passengers who couldn’t make it to the boat. The heartbreaking scene depicts them accepting their fates. Of those passengers were an elderly couple holding each other in bed as their room starts to flood with water. The couple was actually the owners of Macy’s.
They were offered a place in the lifeboat, but the husband refused to board while there were still women who needed saving, and Ida wouldn’t leave her hubby’s side. In a deleted scene, he tries to get her to go, and she proclaims that they’ve been together for 40 years, and according to witnesses, said the words, “where you go, I go.”
Charles Joughin
Also known as “The Drunk Baker,” Charles Joughin is one of the craziest survival stories of the RSS Titanic. In a deleted scene, he’s shown throwing chairs off the boat and drinking significant amounts. In reality, he was a chef and off-duty baker on the ship. He sent provisions to those in the lifeboats and reportedly started throwing kids and women into the lifeboats!
As the deleted scene portrayed, he held onto the safety rail as the ship sank, and though there wasn’t room for him on the boat, a cook held his hand as he held onto the other side of the boat, finally getting rescued when another lifeboat arrived.
The Chinese Man On The Door
In a deleted Titanic scene, Fifth Officer Harold Lowe is searching for survivors in the water. Before reaching Rose, he finds a Chinese man floating on all floors, hanging onto a door. The man’s name was Fang Lang, and he was one of the other six Chinese passengers. Although Lang was rescued from the ocean, he was deported upon arrival to Ellis Island because of the Chinese Exclusion act.
JJ Astor & Benjamin Guggenheim
One of the ship’s most notable passengers, Guggenheim was an American businessman. He boarded the ship with his mistress, his chauffeur, his valet, and his maid. Only his mistress and his maid survived.
JJ Astor, or John Jacob Astor IV, was a business magnate, also from the US, who just happened to be the richest man on the ship. He came with his wife Madeleine Force Astor and their entourage, which consisted of a valet, a maid, and a nurse, as Astor’s wife was pregnant at the time. Just like Guggenheim’s mistress, she survived on the lifeboats, but Astor himself remained on the ship and died.
In the Titanic scene, they show Guggenheim refusing a lifejacket, saying that he and his valet were “dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.” Apparently, this is what he said in reality. Right after Astor goes by, looking for his wife’s dog, One of the real-life rumors about Astor’s final actions was that he released the dogs by opening the ship’s kennel.
Charles Lightoller
Second officer Charles Lightoller was the famous officer who told Captain Smith just how difficult it would be to see icebergs without breaking water. The same officer also suggested boarding children and women on lifeboats first.
He’s later seen getting on an upturned boat as a funnel collapses, and in a deleted scene, we see more of the officer on the same boat.
Although he was very close to losing his life, he fought for it and removed a revolver that was hindering him from swimming properly. After seeing the upturned boat, he helped passengers who were hanging on for dear life. Charles ultimately kept survivors calm and organized them until they were rescued by another lifeboat.