R.I.P. Ron Murillo
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 6:57 pmJohn Charles reported:
I'm sorry to report the passing of HK and Bollywood film enthusiast Ron Murillo. He suffered a stroke last Sunday and, alas, was not found until over 24 hours later. By that point, little could be done for him and he died yesterday.
I first encountered Ron in the early '90s when we both wrote for Richard Akiyama's Hawaii-based fanzine, SKAM (later rechristened CINERAIDER), which focused mainly on covering HK movies. This was early enough on that such a thing was still fairly unique. Ron's opinions were so consistently off from mine, it was almost comical. I respected his conviction, though, and we hit it off. Ron and I stayed in touch and, once we both had the internet, we e-mailed each other on a regular (sometimes even daily) basis. I ran an Asian movie mailing list for a small group of friends and Ron was always one of the most enthusiastic contributors, digging up all manner of stories from entertainment pages across the globe. Ron was also just about the world's biggest Michelle Yeoh fan and I received two e-mails from him last Saturday bursting with enthusiasm over the fact that he had found two commercials on You Tube that Yeoh had done for the Malaysian Department of Tourism.
I regret deeply that I never made it to California to meet Ron in person, but I will always cherish our correspondence and am glad that I was able to call him friend.
August Ragone:
I am shocked. I've known Ron since the 1970s, when he was working at Dan Ferris' The Cinemashop, and I was a little twerp asking for Godzilla stills. Ron turned me on to Greg Shoemaker's "Japanese Fantasy Film Journal", for which he used to contribute reviews. We'd occasionally get together with other fans, and I was always treated like an adult. In the years since, I constantly ran into Ron at screenings and conventions, and we'd always have a nice chat, and we'd make promises to hang out, but never did. I regret this. Ron was one of those non-political fans who were able to completely enjoy Asian cinema because he didn't get caught up in Fandom.
I'm going to miss Ron; he was a generous and wonderful guy. The world is a little less bright now.
I'm sorry to report the passing of HK and Bollywood film enthusiast Ron Murillo. He suffered a stroke last Sunday and, alas, was not found until over 24 hours later. By that point, little could be done for him and he died yesterday.
I first encountered Ron in the early '90s when we both wrote for Richard Akiyama's Hawaii-based fanzine, SKAM (later rechristened CINERAIDER), which focused mainly on covering HK movies. This was early enough on that such a thing was still fairly unique. Ron's opinions were so consistently off from mine, it was almost comical. I respected his conviction, though, and we hit it off. Ron and I stayed in touch and, once we both had the internet, we e-mailed each other on a regular (sometimes even daily) basis. I ran an Asian movie mailing list for a small group of friends and Ron was always one of the most enthusiastic contributors, digging up all manner of stories from entertainment pages across the globe. Ron was also just about the world's biggest Michelle Yeoh fan and I received two e-mails from him last Saturday bursting with enthusiasm over the fact that he had found two commercials on You Tube that Yeoh had done for the Malaysian Department of Tourism.
I regret deeply that I never made it to California to meet Ron in person, but I will always cherish our correspondence and am glad that I was able to call him friend.
August Ragone:
I am shocked. I've known Ron since the 1970s, when he was working at Dan Ferris' The Cinemashop, and I was a little twerp asking for Godzilla stills. Ron turned me on to Greg Shoemaker's "Japanese Fantasy Film Journal", for which he used to contribute reviews. We'd occasionally get together with other fans, and I was always treated like an adult. In the years since, I constantly ran into Ron at screenings and conventions, and we'd always have a nice chat, and we'd make promises to hang out, but never did. I regret this. Ron was one of those non-political fans who were able to completely enjoy Asian cinema because he didn't get caught up in Fandom.
I'm going to miss Ron; he was a generous and wonderful guy. The world is a little less bright now.