The strength of the story, the example and the thoughts left by Valerio, who died at 41 years old after an inexorable illness, also shook the famous actor and martial artist Ron Smoorenburg, who announced yesterday on his Facebook profile that he had officially added the name by Valerio in its distinctive logo “Life is action”.
All action movie lovers know Ron Smoorenburg as one of the greatest martial arts actors of the last decades, having participated in over 150 films shot with colleagues of the caliber of Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Ryan Gosling, Mickey Rourke, Scott Adkins, Jason Statham, etc.: the final fight between him and Jackie Chan in the 1998 film “Who am I?” is unforgettable.
It was precisely that fight that Valerio and his brother Vincenzo saw together at the cinema, when they were young competitive Taekwondo athletes, that made Ron Smoorenburg their idol.
After 25 years, last October, Vincenzo managed to personally meet the Dutch actor and told him Valerio’s story, inviting him to Legnano, in the gym where his brother has always trained, for a seminar in his memory.
Ron kept his promise and arrived in Italy on Friday 14 June: at Malpensa, after a 12-hour flight, he did not ask to be accompanied to the hotel or to eat something, but to go immediately to the Parco cemetery, where Valerio rests.
“I had the privilege of meeting an extraordinary person”, specifies Vincenzo Spinosa, “talented like few others in martial arts, with a very rare humanity and sensitivity.
When I told him Valerio’s story, Ron had no doubts and immediately accepted my invitation to come to the Scuole Pascoli gym, where Valerio practiced and taught for almost his entire young life, to conduct a seminar in his memory. , for me and for all my brother’s students.
It was a weekend of very strong emotions, in which Ron and I not only practiced Taekwondo, meditation and “Recharge” (his personal defense system), but we also exchanged important considerations on the indispensable values of life, love and time , those that Valerio reminds us every day not to neglect and to put at the center of our choices.
Ron’s identifying logo, as a martial artist and actor, is “Life is Action”, which for him represents a very specific philosophy of life, that of acting, of getting up after every hard blow that life inflicts and of moving forward, because we have everyone has one mission: to live!
Valerio’s story, courage and strength deeply shook him, to the point that since yesterday, in that logo that Ron spreads all over the world, my brother’s name was added, because the example he left – so he wrote on his Facebook page – “it is the purest form of what Life is Action really means”.
Therefore, as communicated yesterday with a video on his Facebook profile and on his YouTube channel, “Life is Action will be dedicated to honor the life of Valerio” and from yesterday the logo Ron’s official statement will be “Life Is action in loving memory of Valerio Spinosa”.
It was a great recognition of Valerio’s value, the courage and strength with which – even during his illness – he never gave up on living and loving life, showing up at the gym to train his students even in the last months before leaving us , despite his weakened body and devastating therapies.
Now my brother’s ideas, principles and values will be able to continue to run on the legs of his students and many other people.”
