Nam Angels

This was a movie that I really enjoyed. I was casting with Dick Reyes,And I had a role. Archie Adamos and I were captured by the Cong. But Brad Johnson got away , and proceeds to put togather an Escape squad. There were no personell available at the time so hes forced to use a rabble group of Hells angels . Anyway eventually we are freed and spend the rest of the movie avoididing the Cong. My most memorable part of the film. Was when we come to a damaged bridge.We hook up a pulley and slide across the hole in the bridge.We had built a set which was a copy of the real bridge. But the set was only about 15 feet high. The real bridge was over 50 feet high.I pushed Cirio to let me do my own stunt on the real bridge. But he knew that I wasnt in good shape at the time(too much beer) so he refused and made me do the set bridge. Sure enough I couldnt hold the rope very long and I lost my grip and fell to the rocks below. I broke 3 ribs and had other injuries. I had a huge cut over my Eye that was bleeding profusly. Cirio was very worried and told me-- " Imagine if I had let you do the dtunt on the real bridge!!". Thats when I found out about the healing abilities of the Banana leaf. Bert, this is right up your alley!! One of the leading actors had been a medic in the navy and he knew how to stop the bleeding over my eye. He pulverized a piece of banana leaf and mixed it with a few drops of water. He put the paste on the cut and the bleeding stopped instantly. There is an anti cougulation chemical in the banana leaf. Also they wrapped some leafs around my ribs and the pain subsided and I was able to hobble away. After that movie I started going to the Gym and I still go today.

POW The Escape

This was an exciting movie to work in. And David came very close to having a serious accident. We were shooting the end of the movie. Several choppers were landing and we would all get out and head for the base.David was allways in the first copter. We did several takes. Finally we did the last take. But this time unknown to David he was no longer in the first copter. We landed and David got out and looking down at his script or something he walked right toward the rear rotors of another copter. He had thought that he was still in the first one,he told us later. Several of us yelled to him to be carefull, But the rotor sound was deafening and he didnt hear us. Finally someone ran up to him and stopped him just feet away from the deadly rotors!! On the first day of shooting he came up to me at lunch and gave me a hug. And He asked me why was I there. He thought that I was his agent. I told him that I wasnt who he thought I was. He said never mind and invited me to eat with him.During the course of the film he told me alot of stories about his TV series "Kung Fu". He also admited that he didnt know any Kung Fu during the series but learned after the series. He really loved filipino rice wine. He was quite a character, on and off the camera

Bar fights

Barfights were my favorite thing in the movies. I loved to throw someone through a window or smash a balsa wood chair over someones head. And then there was the candy glass beer bottles. They woulde put some red food dyed water inside a San Miguel bottle made out of candy. when someone was wacked on the head in slo-motion with one of these it looked great. My favorite bar fight was in Expendables. Cirio told us to go crazy and we did. We spent hours and smashed countless chairs,tables, and bottles that night.It was made even more fun as we had a toke or two.

Goodbye Mike

This is a photo of Mike Monty and Me in "Tough Cop" .I had the priveledge of
working with Mike in a dozen or so films. I also got to know him as a friend. Mike
was a large part of the movie experience in the Phillipines. He died in Italy, A country
that he loved alot. I loved Italy too as My Family has its roots there. I taked several
times to Mike over the years, But I never got to say goodbye to him. So Im doing
it here.

Drug violence in my home, Reynosa,Mexico

This is My adopted home in northern Mexico on the US border.Reynosa is its name.Usually its a peacfull place with little crime. But on a day earlier this year I felt like I was in a movie again. I was doing a little shopping and was crossing a main highway when several truckloads of fMexican federal police were suddenly all around me. They motioned for me to start running which I quickly did. Then agunfight ensued. And grenades were throwned . My car was only about
30 meters away from all the action.I took off. I spent the next several hours
trying to get home. Intersections were blocked by cars and busses. Drug
cartel soldiers were coming up to people in their cars and odering them at gunpoint
to get out of their cars and start running. There was chaos everywhere --cars
were driving on the wrong side. Phone service was off. I finally managed to
drive over some dirt roads around the main roads and eventually made my
way home. I hope never to go through that experience again. But Im sure
I will.

Joe Mari in Demonstone

Heres Joe Mari in Demonstone.What a character actor he was. And he is very good man to work with or have as a friend. I had the priveledge to cast a couple of movies for him and act to. In addition to our work togather for Cirio. He could do anything on a set.Direct, Design sets, Write scripts,and act too. Sometimes all at the same time!!

photos

Heres a few photos. I lost most off my photos on a airplane flight. They gave me $150 which could never replace the memories in the photos.To the left is me as a Nazi solder in Future hunters.Top left is from American Ninja. Henry got me my first Bit part and I was terrified and screwed up the first three takes!! Above was from Delta force2 . Chuck Norris was a great guy. Which is more than I can say for his brother.

Delta force 2 Helicopter crash

Delta force was a fun movie, Even though I sat around on the set for 2 weeks once waiting to do a scene.It was nice getting paid to do nothing but I would rather work. As its boring and the time drags when your idle. Cirio would never have done that. If he ended up not needing you for a scene he would have still gotten his moneys worth out of you. Hed put you far in the background and have you running up and down hills all day while your getting blown up!!Ha!! In Delta force I got to work with Richard Jaekel (dirty Dozen) We were captured togather by the bad guys. We were Dea agents.Finally our scene came when we were to run up to the chopper with some Delta force guys after Chuck Norris breaks us out of captivity. Now earlier that day the maintainance man for the chopper told the Director AAron Norris that he didnt think the chopper should be used until he could calibrate the rotors or something. Well Aaron wasnt having any of that and made us use the chopper anyway.We shot many scenes of us running up and getting on and rising up. Aaron wanted to do another external shot But the director of photography said there wasnt enough light. So they set up for an internal dialog shot instead. That meant lights and some crew. The 2nd unit director told me that there wasnt enough room and that I and 2 other actors should get off and come back when they did another angle. So We had coffee and waited. We were shooting on a small mountain. The Chopper went up and we heard a noise like a pop.Then they went down the side of the mountain. We knew something was wrong. We ran over to the edge and looked down. the chopper had hit its rotor on the side of the mountain and was now spinning out of control.Then it crashed on the road below. We all ran down to try and help. The chopper was on fire. Ill never forget Ned Hourani standing on top of the burning chopper ripping off the door. WE were afraid the chopper was going to blow any time. But when we saw Ned up there unafraid It sparked us all into action. We pulled several bodies out I think there was 3-4 dead and several survivors all seriously burned and wounded. The next day the production was shut down .And we went on to other projects. I remember a week later I was in a chopper again on a Teddy chu film . I was scarred for about 10 minutes.Ha!!

Im finally here

Thank you bert for helping me to finaly get this blog going. Like Bert and Nick I have alot of storis to talk about. Doing movies in the Phillipines was like no other experience I ever had. to play little boy games and get paid for it!! One story Ill never forget eas when I allmost died in A helecoptor crash during Delta force 2........