Nida Blanca
Encyclopedia
Dorothy Acueza Jones, popularly known by her stage name
Nida Blanca, was a Filipina
actress. She starred in over 163 movies and 14 television shows and received over 16 awards for movies and six awards for television during her 50-year film career. She was named one of 15 Best Actress of all Time by YES magazine.
She was stabbed to death in a parking lot in San Juan City on November 7, 2001.
, Nueva Ecija
, Philippines (then a U.S.
territory) to an American soldier father and a Filipina mother, she appeared in her first film at age 14. Actress Delia Razon successfully urged the head of LVN Pictures
, Doña Sisang de Leon
to hire Blanca. She was screen test
ed on October 6, 1950 by LVN Pictures where she reigned as queen for more than a decade, doing mostly comedies opposite the late Nestor de Villa
. In the movies, she has played everything from a guy-punching tomboy to a nun. She also starred in the hit TV comedy series, John En Marsha
, where she played the wife who sticks by her poor husband despite her rich mother's constant harping.
Blanca was married twice. She separated from her first husband, Victorino Torres when their daughter Kaye was only two years old. She later married her second husband Roger Lawrence Strunk (1940-2007), an American singer and actor, known by his screen name, Rod Lauren
in Las Vegas
in 1979. The couple relocated to Manila
.
in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila
where she worked for MTRCB. She was an active member of the Movies and Television Regulatory Classification Board (MTRCB), attending screenings and rating movies twice a week, at the time of her death.
The prime suspect was Blanca's husband Rod Strunk whom the prosecutors said had hired a hitman
to kill her because Blanca had disinherited him from her will. Investigators found that Blanca had up to P85 million in properties, including a Greenhills, San Juan, condominium worth P10 million and a house in California worth $300,000. If Blanca had annulled her marriage, Strunk would get nothing. But if Blanca died before she was able to terminate her marriage, under the law, Strunk being the legal spouse would be entitled to a portion of his estranged wife’s inheritance even though Blanca’s will stated that all her properties would go to her daughter.
The case rests on the statements of witnesses and Philip Medel, a self-confessed killer who surrendered to PNP
Task Force Marsha on November 19, 2001 and confessed that Strunk had hired him to kill Blanca. Medel recanted his testimony four days later claiming the police had tortured him into confessing. The prosecutors said medical examinations had found no evidence to back his claim of torture. Charge Medel, Strunk: DOJ
Despite Medel's recantation, Strunk remained the prime suspect according to Philippine prosecutors, based largely on circumstantial evidence and statements of new witnesses.
Strunk was in the U.S. in 2003 when he was charged with the murder of Blanca. He left the Philippines in January 2002 to visit his mother who was dying at the time and never returned. He was later arrested at his home and detained at the Sacramento County Jail after the Philippine government filed an extradition request against Strunk to stand trial in the Philippines. The U.S. court denied the extradition request and Strunk was immediately released from jail. The Philippine government had filed a second extradition case against Strunk but has not received any official response from the United States government.
Strunk committed suicide on July 11, 2007 by jumping from a second-floor balcony of the Tracy Inn in Tracy, California
where he had been staying for the previous three days.
Kaye Torres lamented in 2008 that after 7 years, the criminal case is still pending trial. She stated that she is convinced Philip Medel is guilty of the crime.
Philip Medel remained the suspect and was held in jail until his death on 7th of April, 2010 at the age of 62. Medel died of sepsis
caused by pneumonia
at the Philippine General Hospital.
Pending murder case on Nida Blanca was featured in the Philippine T.V. documentary show Case Unclosed as its 6th episode entitiled "Nida Blanca Murder Case."
1998 FAMAS Sana Pag-ibig na Nga
1950 Famas - Korea
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
Nida Blanca, was a Filipina
Filipino people
The Filipino people or Filipinos are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the islands of the Philippines. There are about 92 million Filipinos in the Philippines, and about 11 million living outside the Philippines ....
actress. She starred in over 163 movies and 14 television shows and received over 16 awards for movies and six awards for television during her 50-year film career. She was named one of 15 Best Actress of all Time by YES magazine.
She was stabbed to death in a parking lot in San Juan City on November 7, 2001.
Biography
Born as Dorothy Acueza Jones in Gapan CityGapan City
Gapan City is a 4th class city in the province of Nueva Ecija, Philippines. Gapan is nicknamed the "Footwear Capital of the North", and it is an inseparable part of the Rice Granary of the Philippines. According to the latest census, it has a population of 98,795 people in 18,200 households...
, Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija
Nueva Ecija is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is Palayan City...
, Philippines (then a U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
territory) to an American soldier father and a Filipina mother, she appeared in her first film at age 14. Actress Delia Razon successfully urged the head of LVN Pictures
LVN Pictures
LVN Pictures, Inc. is one of the biggest film studios in the history of Philippine cinema and its foremost establishment in motion picture post-production until 2005...
, Doña Sisang de Leon
Narcisa de Leon
Narcisa Buencamino Vd.ª De de Leon was a Filipino film producer. Clad daily in the frugal rural dress of the camisón, saya and chinelas, Doña Sisang, as she was widely known, was already a 61-year old widow when she entered the film industry...
to hire Blanca. She was screen test
Screen test
A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film and/or in a particular role. The performer is generally given a scene, or selected lines and actions, and instructed to perform in front of a camera to see if they are suitable...
ed on October 6, 1950 by LVN Pictures where she reigned as queen for more than a decade, doing mostly comedies opposite the late Nestor de Villa
Néstor de Villa
Néstor de Villa was a Filipino actor frequently cast in musical films. He was a gifted dancer, often paired with frequent on-screen partner Nida Blanca in both movies and television...
. In the movies, she has played everything from a guy-punching tomboy to a nun. She also starred in the hit TV comedy series, John En Marsha
John En Marsha
John En Marsha was the longest-running and most watched prime time comedy sitcom in the Philippines during the 1970s and 1980s. Created by Ading Fernando, it aired on RPN and starred Dolphy, the late Nida Blanca, Dely Atay-Atayan and Maricel Soriano. The show ran from 1973 to 1990...
, where she played the wife who sticks by her poor husband despite her rich mother's constant harping.
Blanca was married twice. She separated from her first husband, Victorino Torres when their daughter Kaye was only two years old. She later married her second husband Roger Lawrence Strunk (1940-2007), an American singer and actor, known by his screen name, Rod Lauren
Rod Lauren
Rod Lauren Strunk was an American actor and singer.As an actor, he worked mostly in television, appearing in single episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. amongst others during the 1960s...
in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
in 1979. The couple relocated to Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
.
Death
On November 7, 2001, Blanca was found murdered, beaten and stabbed 13 times in the back seat of her Nissan Sentra in the parking lot of Atlanta CentreAtlanta Centre
The Atlanta Centre is an office skyscraper in San Juan City, Philippines. It is also the highest building in the city with a total height of 179 metres from the ground to its architectural spire ....
in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila
San Juan, Metro Manila
The City of San Juan or simply San Juan is a city in Metro Manila in the Philippines. Before the creation of Metro Manila, it was part of Rizal Province. Currently the smallest city in the region and the country in terms of area, San Juan is one of the smallest among the cities and municipalities...
where she worked for MTRCB. She was an active member of the Movies and Television Regulatory Classification Board (MTRCB), attending screenings and rating movies twice a week, at the time of her death.
The prime suspect was Blanca's husband Rod Strunk whom the prosecutors said had hired a hitman
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
to kill her because Blanca had disinherited him from her will. Investigators found that Blanca had up to P85 million in properties, including a Greenhills, San Juan, condominium worth P10 million and a house in California worth $300,000. If Blanca had annulled her marriage, Strunk would get nothing. But if Blanca died before she was able to terminate her marriage, under the law, Strunk being the legal spouse would be entitled to a portion of his estranged wife’s inheritance even though Blanca’s will stated that all her properties would go to her daughter.
The case rests on the statements of witnesses and Philip Medel, a self-confessed killer who surrendered to PNP
PNP
-Science and technology:* Legacy Plug and Play or PnP, an ISA bus extension, a special case of Plug and play* Principles and parameters, a linguistics framework* PNP, a type of Bipolar junction transistor...
Task Force Marsha on November 19, 2001 and confessed that Strunk had hired him to kill Blanca. Medel recanted his testimony four days later claiming the police had tortured him into confessing. The prosecutors said medical examinations had found no evidence to back his claim of torture. Charge Medel, Strunk: DOJ
Despite Medel's recantation, Strunk remained the prime suspect according to Philippine prosecutors, based largely on circumstantial evidence and statements of new witnesses.
Strunk was in the U.S. in 2003 when he was charged with the murder of Blanca. He left the Philippines in January 2002 to visit his mother who was dying at the time and never returned. He was later arrested at his home and detained at the Sacramento County Jail after the Philippine government filed an extradition request against Strunk to stand trial in the Philippines. The U.S. court denied the extradition request and Strunk was immediately released from jail. The Philippine government had filed a second extradition case against Strunk but has not received any official response from the United States government.
Strunk committed suicide on July 11, 2007 by jumping from a second-floor balcony of the Tracy Inn in Tracy, California
Tracy, California
Tracy is the second most populated city in San Joaquin County, California, United States and an exurb of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 82,922 at the 2010 census.-History:...
where he had been staying for the previous three days.
Kaye Torres lamented in 2008 that after 7 years, the criminal case is still pending trial. She stated that she is convinced Philip Medel is guilty of the crime.
Philip Medel remained the suspect and was held in jail until his death on 7th of April, 2010 at the age of 62. Medel died of sepsis
Sepsis
Sepsis is a potentially deadly medical condition that is characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state and the presence of a known or suspected infection. The body may develop this inflammatory response by the immune system to microbes in the blood, urine, lungs, skin, or other tissues...
caused by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
at the Philippine General Hospital.
Pending murder case on Nida Blanca was featured in the Philippine T.V. documentary show Case Unclosed as its 6th episode entitiled "Nida Blanca Murder Case."
Best Actress Awards
1985 Urian,FAP,CMMA - Miguelito, Ang Batang Rebelde1998 FAMAS Sana Pag-ibig na Nga
Best Supporting Actress Awards
1986 Urian, Famas, Fap, Star Awards - Magdusa Ka1950 Famas - Korea
TV shows
- The Nida-Nestor Show (ABS-CBN)
- Tangtarantang (ABS-CBN)
- John en MarshaJohn En MarshaJohn En Marsha was the longest-running and most watched prime time comedy sitcom in the Philippines during the 1970s and 1980s. Created by Ading Fernando, it aired on RPN and starred Dolphy, the late Nida Blanca, Dely Atay-Atayan and Maricel Soriano. The show ran from 1973 to 1990...
(RPN) - Haybol Rambol (GMA Network)
- Puwedeng Puwede (ABS-CBN)
- Lovingly Yours Helen (GMA Network)
- GMA Telecine Specials (GMA Network)
- GMA True Stories (GMA Network)
- Anna KareninaAnna Karenina (Philippine TV series)- Cast and characters :Main Cast*Antoinette Taus as Anna Karenina "Anna" Monteclaro*Sunshine Dizon as Anna Karenina "Karen" Villarama*Kim delos Santos as Anna Karenina "Nina" Fuentebella*Tanya Garcia as "Grace" San Victores...
(GMA Network) - May Himala (GMA Network)
- Daddy Di Do Du (GMA Network)
- Maalaala Mo Kaya (ABS-CBN)
- Mula Sa Puso (ABS-CBN) - her last TV appearance