Nestor got his last wish

Nestor de Villa prayed for a peaceful and happy — and painless — death and he got his wish.

Yesterday morning at 6:42, Nestor succumbed to biliary duct cancer at home, surrounded by his loved ones. He was 75.

"He didn’t want to experience too much pain," Nestor’s son Joby, a pastor, told The STAR. "He wanted to go quietly and painlessly."

Three days ago, recalled Joby, his father slipped into sweet slumber and never woke up.

Diagnosed to have cancer in April last year at the University of Southern California Hospital in Los Angeles, Nestor underwent a series of chemotherapy and radio therapy sessions and even tried alternative medicine.

His remains were cremated yesterday. The wake is at the New Life Church in Alabang Hills, Ayala Alabang.

Nestor’s death brings to a close one of local movies’ most romantic eras. Between his first movie, Amor Mio (with the late Tessie Quintana), and his last, Star Cinema’s Forevermore (with Jericho Rosales and Kristine Hermosa) in 2002, Nestor starred in more than a hundreds others, most of them produced by LVN Pictures which paired him with Nida Blanca whose murder in Nov. 2001 has remained unsolved until today.

Soon, Nida and Nestor became one of the most popular loveteams of the ’50s even if there was nothing romantic (but pure friendship) between them. Besides movies (Galawgaw, Waray-Waray, Talusaling, etc.), they also topbilled the long-running Nida-Nestor Show at the old ABS-CBN.

Here’s a backgrounder on Nestor released by his family:

For a fortunate few, the path to stardom came fast and easy. For a good-looking young man from an obscure town, Gines Soriano never dreamed of coming to Manila only to be discovered for the movies. Although the son of an hacendero from Nueva Ecija had his mind set on becoming a successful doctor, his feet were defining him as an excellent dancer. The story is told that on a day in May in the early ’50s, this young man along with his gang decided to watch the filming of a friend. The director on the set took one look at him and said, "You should be in the movies."

A few days later, a well-known scriptwriter was seated at his typewriter finishing out a story entitled Dimas when the young man stopped by to pay him a visit. Upon seeing him, the scriptwriter said that he just happened to be the man he was looking for to play the character in the story he was working on. It was then that a visit to the Old Lady at LVN Studios Doña Sisang, was in order. No sooner did he step into her presence did she immediately want him to sign a contract. The Old Lady was heard to have said, "We won’t have a difficult time building him up."

Several movies down the road only proved that this young man was made of the stuff of stars. After playing the lead character to many ladies, he teamed up with Nida Blanca. The tandem took on the movie world by storm as they sang and danced their way into the hearts and minds of Filipinos. In later recollections, it was told that due to the premiere of one of their box-office hits, an entire main street in Manila was shut down to traffic. The Philippine silver screen has never embraced an enduring partnership since. An early magazine article featured this young man and predicted that he will go far in his acting career. And with such endearing film classics as Bahala Na, Waray Waray and Ikaw Kasi, Nestor stepped into the spotlight of filmdom; the rest is, as they say, movie history.

In the latter years, Nestor lived out his final role as an evangelist and servant of Jesus Christ. The Lord called him in 1984 from the filmdom of stars to the kingdom of God. He literally surrendered the center stage of his life in order that the Lord might grow greater and greater while he grew less and less (John 3:30). Time and again he prayed, "Lord, use me to win more souls for your kingdom." God heard and honored the prayer of his servant. He reaped a great harvest of souls and influenced countless lives through his story and service.

Yesterday morning, the Lord healed Nestor and called him to his final resting place. You could just imagine the tremendous joy that filled his heart as he danced his way into eternity. The Lord embraced him at the gates of heaven and said, "Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and share your master’s happiness!" (Matthew 25:21). And true to the title of his last film, he lives with our Lord Jesus Christ "Forevermore."

Nestor is survived by his wife Marilu Cacho Soriano, his three sons and only daughter and their respective families namely Jeric, his wife Marissa, and their children Paul, Patrick, Phillip, and Parker; Gicky, his wife Malu, and their children Jed, Natalia and Rebecca; Joby, his wife Cindy, and their children Sandra, Jenna, Jake, and Miles; and Karel, her husband Toti, and their children Claudia and Olivia.