ramon zamora

I learned of his death on TV a more than a week ago...can't believe that he was five years older than that of his cinematic role model Bruce Lee.

While Bruce Lee died at 32 at the height of his powers as a martial artist and actor, 'Ang Dragon' saw his career go into a slow fade as the 70s turned into the 80s,as the demand for martial arts flicks declined. Zamora,until his demise at 72, found himself playing bit parts in films and on TV that were a shadow of his former heyday.

As a kid, I used to religiously see his TV series Dragon Force. Whenever it was time for him to rip off his shirt in the climactic showdown, I ignored the constant 'time for dinner'calls from downstairs,tothe consternation of my family. Then there's this old black-and-white film on TV(color TV sets was still a novelty in those days),where he plays a lame young man on crutches,magically transforming himself as Sprakenheit, a superhero with a Hitler mustache,SS uniform, a telescopic swagger stick and his faux-German shout-speak dispatching his opponents with a fiery display of martial arts.

Another film I used to see him is with Lotis Key,and the fight scenes in this flick were very violent--In one sequence,he ambushes his enemies bathing naked in a stream,and interrogates one of them by bashing his head repeatedly into a large rock until he dies. The final fight sequence was set in a desert. He blinds a goon by thrusting two fingers into his eyes. He wins of course,but he dies at the end as well.

Later on, he was paired with another martial arts rival Rey Malonzo,master of the 'Yaw-Yan' as well as then-child star Nino Muhlach. As time went by, he shed his Bruce Lee persona and took on supporting roles in the action genre,such as a member of a commando force operating behind enemy lines or an old master teaching a disciple kung fu,a la Gordon Liu. In the early 80s,he starred in an action film called Dalmacio Armas,where he was shown in the trailer and in the poster in a menacing stance wearing and holding a variety of weapons from daggers,to arrows,with a gun in one hand and a spear in another.

While watching a YouTube video on his life,he was covered by a TV camera crew outside his Antipolo house,built with a little financial assistance from FPJ...unlike FPJ,Erap and a few other 70s action superstars, Zamora, like others in show business,ended up on hard times,and had to continue playing soldier in the entertainment industry just to pay the bills. In aMr.Shooli movie in the early 90s,he reprised his Sprakenheit character who was brought in as an adviser to Manhik Manaog and his goons on election time.

When he died more than a week ago, part of my childhood memories died with him too.