Nida Blanca - Nestor de Villa

From WikiPilipinas: The Hip 'n Free Philippine Encyclopedia

Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa are both Filipino actors who were tremendously popular in the 1950-1960's. Dorothy Jones, more popularly known by her stage name Nida Blanca, is an American-Filipino actress who starred in over 163 movies and 14 TV shows and has received over 16 awards for movies and 6 awards for television during her 50-year film career. Nestor de Villa was also a gifted dancer whose dancing talent led others to call him the "Fred Astaire of the Philippines."

Both Nida and Nestor were gifted in the field of dancing, singing and, of course, acting. LVN Pictures, one of the biggest film studios in the history of Philippine cinema, boasted of the Nida Blanca-Nestor de Villa tandem. Their team-up started and blossomed in the movie, Amor-mio in 1952. They both showed off their talent in dancing in the film Squatters (1953). They also ventured into romantic comedy and numerous box-office hits followed, like Waray-Waray (1954), Kalyehera (1957) and Talusaling (1958). Although Nida played wife to Dolphy in the TV series and film John en Marsha, the viewers still recalled the Nida ad Nestor love team. The hit team-up reunited in the 80's with three movies, starting with Forgive and Forget (1982).

On November 7, 2001, Blanca was found murdered, beaten and stabbed 13 times. Her husband Rod Strunk was the suspected mastermind. Her gruesome murder remains unresolved to this day.

De Villa on the other hand, died of prostate cancer on February 21, 2004, having remained active in films up to the very end.