Nick Nicholson has left us :(

It saddens me very much to hear that Nick Nicholson is dead. You can read the words from his wife Annie here.

I never met him, but we was planning to go to the Philippines someday to visit some volcanos, and also drop by Nick. We never got the chance.

With Nick it always was a lot of emotions, like him, I'm also a hot-head, really not trying to hide our opinions about people. So when he started his ramblings (I don't think would mind me using that word), I saw myself in that so much.

Though I never commented much on his blog, we kept in contact thru email. The last time was this weekend when we as discussing some plans, and he seemed to very enthusiastic about it. "I love it" was the last message I got - just that. He was sick, but took the time to write back anyway.

So I went back to the other mails we shared, and it's hard to keep back the tears. "I don't mid discussing things with you as it does help to talk with somebody. I thank you for your concern, and am glad I have found a friend like you!". He sure could be very rough, but he was always so open, he could discuss, analyze, joke about everything. And it always helped me back on track, and hopefully the he felt the same way. Everytime some idiot made rude and offensive remarks against me, I'm being gay or what ever, at the blog, Nick showed up and wrote that I shouldn't care about those fuckers, that I should be doing what I want to do... I appreciated that a lot. A good man, with a very foul language :)

Last week I was chatting with Brian Trenchard-Smith. I wrote to him about The Man from Hong Kong and we had a little conversation. He said he was very proud of Firebase Gloria and I mentioned that I know Nick, who was in it. He wanted me to say hi to Nick and wrote that he was a great asset during the shooting of the movie and that he deserved more credit for his work. Nick was very happy hearing this, which he emailed me a couple of days ago. Now when I've been writing this, I forwarded the sad new to Trenchard-Smith who replied: "Vale, Nick...A good soldier, a strong actor, and a great guy. Manila will be less colorful without him.". See his impressive filmography here.

It was many years since I cried. But I do it know, which is strange. Many people probably knew him better than me, of us fans, but when I look back to all the wonderful emails, all the support he's given me (and I hope I gave that back to him too), tears is rolling down my face.

But still, I can laugh when I read Annies words on Nick's blog, that even if he was dying - with a bad heart and everything else - he fucked doctors order, ate his hamburger, coke and fries - kissed his wife and saying "I love you". That's life, man.

I'm very happy I got to know him, that I had the pleasure of discussing life with Nick. My regards go to Annie, his wife, and his family.

I borrowed this new photo of him, probably taken by Annie. I hope that's okey - or else I will remove it.

/Fred