While one veteran performer, Gloria Romero, happily celebrated her being a proud nonagenarian with colleagues and close friends, a septuagenarian actor, Ronaldo Valdez sadly passed on a day later and the showbiz world is deeply mourning his death.

• Veteran actor Ronaldo Valdez passes away

Valdez, 77, was neither bedridden nor weak. At his age, he still welcomed career breaks, acting opportunities and work both on TV and films. That was why his death came as a shock to most showbiz stars, especially those who are close to him.

• Ilang artista ibinahagi kung paano nilang maaalala si Ronaldo Valdez

His last series was ABS-CBN’s “2 Good 2 Be True” (2022), where he portrayed the endearing Sebastian Hugo Agcaoili, a real estate magnate suffering from a worsening bout of Alzheimer’s.

Directed by Mae Cruz Alviar, the Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla series ran for half a year.

Valdez cherished having worked with both Bernardo and Padilla. In fact, when the series ended in November last year, the veteran actor felt fulfilled to have worked with the young actors who have become family to him.

In his Instagram post after the series wrapped up in November 2022, Valdez declared then, “I feel so blessed because up to now, I’m still active.

“I’m really thankful that I still get to do this job that I really love I think for more than five decades and I still get to work with fantastic actors.”

• Kathryn Bernardo, other celebs mourn passing of Ronaldo Valdez

After “2 Good 2 Be True” ended last year, Bernardo took to Instagram to make public her admiration to her senior co-star.

“My dearest Lolo Sir,” said Bernardo. “I don’t know where to begin, but let’s start with a fun fact. I’ve been your greatest fan since ‘Cedie’ and ‘Munting Paraiso.’

“Whenever people ask me, ‘Sino dream mong makatrabaho?’ My immediate answer would be, Sir Ronaldo Valdez.

“Fast forward to 2021. It seemed like God answered my prayer because you agreed to do this project with us. You probably have no idea how much it meant to me and how excited I was.”

After doing TV, Valdez still managed to wrap up his last big screen assignment, director Rechie del Carmen’s “Ikaw at Ako,” shown early this month, where he was reunited with his perennial screen partner since the early ‘70s, Boots Anson-Roa.

“Ikaw at Ako” was topbilled Rhian Ramos and Paolo Contis.

“We play senior citizens here [in ‘Ikaw at Ako’],” Anson-Roa had said. “Dahil sa true-to-life ang role niya, sa pagiging senior citizen, hindi siya nakarating ngayon. But we play husband and wife here. I play someone with dementia.

“Ronaldo and I don’t see each other before our scenes, but if we need to laugh or do other things in front of the camera, kaya naman namin ‘yun.”

Throughout his career that spanned more than five decades, Valdez portrayed memorable character roles that became ingrained to the minds of filmgoers.

From the time he made his big screen debut in Romy Villaflor’s “Pepe en Pilar” (1966), where he played support to Susan Roces and Dolphy, Valdez never looked back on his early life outside showbiz.

Back in 1994, Valdez scored a grand slam when he played the dad of Aiko Melendez in Jose Javier Reyes’ romance-drama, “May Minamahal.”

• Aiko Melendez recalls fun moments with Ronaldo Valdez: ‘Napaka-alaskador ni Tito Ron!’

Valdez bagged best supporting actor trophies from all four award-giving bodies – FAMAS Awards, Film Academy of the Philippines, Gawad Urian and Star Awards for the Movies.

The year 1995 saw Valdez in three true-to-life films. He played lawyer Romeo Capulong in Joel Lamangan’s “The Flor Contemplacion Story,” followed by Papa Belgica in Toto Natividad’s “The Grepor Butch Belgica Story” and Mike Relon Makiling’s “Karanasan: The Claudia Zobel Story.”

In 1996, Valdez played the aristocrat Earl of Dorincourt in Romy Suzara’s “Cedie: Ang Munting Prinsipe” with Tom Taus in the title role. The film was shot on location in Spain.

“Cedie” was loosely based on the popular anime, “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” culled from the novel of the same title by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Valdez played another distinct character in Olive Lamasan’s romantic melodrama, “The Mistress” (2012), where he was the lover of seamstress Sari, played by Bea Alonzo, who essayed the title role.

Another marked portrayal of Valdez was in Cathy Garcia Molina’s family drama, “Seven Sundays” (2017), where he played the single dad to four, grown-up children – Aga Muhlach, Dingdong Dantes, Christine Reyes and Enrique Gil.

At the height of the pandemic in 2021, Valdez also managed to accommodate Raynier Brizuela’s action-comedy, “Mang Jose,” because it was his son, Janno Gibbs, who played the lead.

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