First let me talk about Mr. K.Y. Lim. He was a man of many different personalities, hated by some, mysterious to many, exasperating to others, but I had a long good history with him. In my own experience Mr. Lim gave me a chance to do what others did not…expand my horizons, play better supporting roles, try my hand at writing stories, treatments, then screenplays with Bugsy Dubao at first, then later with Richard Harrison.

I had begun to work with Bugsy on pre-production on several projects that we actually co-wrote together. Bugsy was able to teach me about breaking down the screenplay as a Production Manager would do, figuring out all the costs, finding locations, costume and equipment, props, every aspect of the film.

By 1980 I was starting to be a regular with Director Cirio Santiago, Mr. Lim, Bobby Suarez, and Rey Malonzo gave me a break on some Filipino action films. Mr. Lim paid low to most, but to us “insiders” he paid us well, and sometimes asked me to discretly say that I was paid LESS that he gave me! I was treated by Mr. Lim like an actor in the days of the Studios, almost on contract. He introduced me to several other Producers such as Regal, Monteverde, Pascual, Sining Silangan. Most of the Filipino films that I had guest roles in were from being ‘farmed out’ by Mr. Lim.

I believe that once you had proven your loyalty he treated you fair. He is Chinese, and is the consummate producer who always seemed to not be making money, but in reality was doing better than most thought.

When I first met Romano Kristoff he was very impressive. I saw his potential and liked him from the start. Bill James and I first met him at Kinevesa Productions I remember. Later, we went to some clubs and what I noticed was how the women stopped talking and just stared at him. He was an “Alan Delon” type of guy who looked so cool, had a presence yet he was not overly pretentious, just a real charmer. He was the life of the party kind of guy.

Funny thing though about Romano and I…we both had scars over our right forehead and at the time I did not know it but I later learned that I had Spanish blood from the same region of Spain. We were always asked if we were brothers or at least cousins. Frequently at parties, beautiful women mistook me for Romano, slapped my face or chided me for not calling them. I had some interesting results, even though I kept telling them “No, I am NOT Romano”. When he came to the party not one of them greeted him, they already had greet “him” his ‘brother’, ME.

But let me tell you, Romano focused on film work with great abandon. In the filming with Bruce Le and Jack Lee, they worked out some great fight scenes together. The three of them would plan out sequences and respect each other mutually. I would join and help out, like the “kicking dummy”. I was amazed at the skills of both of the Hong Kong action stars. Romano was not as skilled in GungFu techniques but that was okay as he was strong in the Okinawa UechiRyu under our friend and instructor Robert Campbell from Boston, Mass. The Japanese style for the film was good, you know Chinese versus the Japanese was a major theme in Hong Kong and foreign markets. Romano was taller, more muscled, and as a foreigner a perfectly cast villain for the film.

Jack Lee had worked with Mr. Lim on the project They Call Him Bruce Lee a year earlier, that starred Filipino actor Rey Malonzo, Philip Gamboa, Manny Luna, Donna Villa, and quite a few Filipino actors. The story was done by Bugsy and I had a small part as one of the “goons” of the bad guys. Jack had only really a supporting role and his character was of the ‘right hand man of Bruce Lee”. Jack Lee trains Rey Malonzo on Jeet Kune Do (in the film they called it something else).

Jack was very good fighter and very personable guy. He was very flexible and long limbed. Rey Malonzo was perhaps the best Filipino martial artist I ever met. Rey and I had a good long fight during the end fight sequences and we fought it out in one of the ruins in Manila.

Jack Lee and I worked together on “The Five-Style Fists” where I was the main Contravida using the Eagle Claw style against Jack Lee. This was filmed between “They Call Him Bruce Lee” and “Bruce’s Fists of Vengeance”. It must be remembered that movie’s came out mid-80’s but the three films were done and sold in theaters from 1978 to 1979 I remember.

Both Bruce Le and Jack Lee seemed to respect each other and were always on the set helping out. I saw no rivalry and since Jack could speak better English he translated for Bruce.

Bill James (Haverly) was directing his first film and I was involved from the beginning to the end. Mr. K.Y. Lim was giving him a chance and Bugsy was Assistant Director and Production Manager. Bugsy, Bill, and I worked on the story and script together, pre-production, all through editing.

Director Bill James was my partner in Great Faces our talent agency’s name, providing models and extras for advertising and television, film extras and actors/actresses. From 1978-82 we provided most foreign extras and models for all these genre. Our agency became the best because we could provide work for extras on TV and films, both Local and International, as well as Advertising in Commercials, for Print, TV, and Theater ads.