Dolphy, the man everyone has taken to addressing as the “King of Comedy” (but would rather be called “a comedian,” as he told Tonight with Arnold Clavio in December of 2010) has died “due to multiple organ failure, secondary to complications brought about by severe pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and acute renal failure,” the Makati Medical Center said in a statement. He passed away at 8:34 in the evening of July 10, and was two weeks shy of 84. Rodolfo Vera Quizon, Sr. (Dolphy’s birth name) was a widely celebrated funnyman whose roots in entertainment could be traced to dance and vaudeville. He came from a family of modest means in Tondo and has been known to have worked odd jobs prior to gracing the stage. His two-hundred-plus films, counting classics such as Luciano Carlos’ Facifica Falayfay (1969) and Lino Brocka’s Ang Tatay Kong Nanay (1978), as well as the immensely successful TV sitcoms John en Marsha and Home Along da Riles, are adored by many across several generations. He popularized countless local comic stereotypes, including the perpetually disgruntled son-in-law (read: John Puruntong) and the screaming bakla, which met a drastic genre-bending redefinition of sorts in Markova: Comfort Gay (2000). Dolphy was also a man of music. He may not have the best pipes in town but was largely known to carry a tune with gusto, as evidenced in his long history of song-and-dance routines with Panchito, et al., and even managing, in 2010, to release the CD Handog ni Pidol: A Lifetime of Music and Laughter amid rumors of his deteriorating health. A favorite of his which appears in said record is Florante’s “Handog,” that timeless love letter from minstrel to fan, a shoe that fits him perfectly, as Mr. Quizon has been tireless in his expression of gratitude to his fans. Pinoytuner mourns the passing of a great man.
Image (detail) by BakitWhy from Flickr Creative Commons. Some rights reserved.
