The local entertainment fraternity has been plunged into mourning with news of the passing of comedian Winston ‘Bello’ Bell. Among the grief-stricken members is Bell’s lifelong friend and comedic partner Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis.

Bell, best known for being one half of gifted comedic duo Bello and Blakka, died on Saturday after experiencing medical complications from neuropathy.

READ: Actor Winiston ‘Bello’ Bell has died

He died on April 15, which coincidentally is the birthday of Ellis, a fact that is testament to how the lives of these two individuals have intersected for the past 47 years.

“It’s rough,” Blakka Ellis told OBSERVER ONLINE on Sunday.

“We met in 1976 at a secondary school drama festival and in 1978, we went to School of Drama together. We had a lot of ‘together time’, the first time I went overseas, at Carifesta in Barbados in 1981, we were together, so this…this…it’s really rough.”

Blakka Ellis said he knew his lifelong friend had been ailing because they had been trying to do a production together with Tony Hendriks called ‘We Three Kins’.

“He was sick at the time, and I had something to do in Toronto and it never happened. It is hard to hear that he finally transitioned and he did so on my birthday, we were born the same year and our lives intersected in so many ways. He was a brilliant actor, an actor’s actor, he was my friend but he was the best actor in Jamaica, he embodied every role he took on completely,” Blakka Ellis said.

Ellis said that Bellos’ best role was that of the lead in Shepherd, a play by Rawle Gibbons, a Barbadian playwright.

Bell is also known for his roles in Third World Cop, One Love, First Black Britons, Glory to Gloriana, and Ghett’a Life. He won several Actor Boy awards, most notably for Ole Story Time. His theatre credits include Louis Marriott’s Bedward and Trevor Rhone’s Pepper.

– Claude Mills