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Entertainer Olga loses battle against meningitis
Kapanlagi
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Kapanlagi.com
A throng of fans, family and friends witnessed Saturday's burial of Yoga 'Olga' Syahputra, a popular entertainer who built his career in a real rags-to-riches story.
Olga passed away on March 27 at a hospital in Singapore after battling meningitis over the past year. He was 32.
His body was brought to his home in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, for burial in the Pondok Kelapa
cemetery.
Born Yoga Syahputra as the eldest son of Nur Rahman and Nurshida in Jakarta, Olga started his career in the entertainment industry as a fan who grabbed any chance to have his picture taken with celebrities and collect their autographs.
He was offered a place in an acting class at Sanggar Ananda, a theater group famous for its all-children Betawi comedy skits, called Lenong Bocah, aired on a TV station in the 1990s.
The family had to sell the house refrigerator to pay for the acting class. Actor Bertrand Antolin later got Olga a new fridge.
Olga played small parts in several TV series and dramas and worked as a personal assistant to dangdut singer Rita Sugiarto to tie up loose ends.
He got his name recognized in the Saturday Night Live-style teen comedy skit show Extravaganza ABG in 2005, in which he often played female characters.
The Ceriwis talk show in 2007 catapulted him to a stardom that led to his own segment and, soon, to his own shows.
Olga won the Favorite Comedian award at the Panasonic Gobel Awards (PGA) in 2009, 2010 and 2013, as well as the PGA's Favorite Music Variety Show Presenter award in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Olga was known as a presenter for the music variety show, Dahsyat, at RCTI together with Luna Maya and Raffi Ahmad.
His countless appearances on different TV stations ' four to eight recorded and live programs a day and more during the Ramadhan fasting month ' had made him the country's richest comedian.
'I remembered Olga as a down-to-earth person who didn't mind eating from lunch boxes prepared for the crew during a shooting break,' said actress Lenna Tan.
His friends said Olga was generous and always ready to lend a hand. He brought along aspiring comedians to his shows and helped them gain public attention, including his younger brother Billy Syahputra.
With his friends Olga opened a Japanese restaurant in the posh Kemang area in South Jakarta and a boutique with his sister Reny Nurman.
He had also released two singles, 'Hancur Hatiku' (Breaking My Heart) in 2009 and 'Jangan Ganggu Aku Lagi' (Leave Me Alone) the year after.
He often put himself at the core of several controversies over his silly jokes and slapstick gags, but none of them had led to lawsuits.
Olga collapsed at a set early last year and his whereabouts were unknown for some time until some close friends posted a picture of him in a hospital bed.
The family denied rumors of Olga's death late last year, an incident that was followed by the release of Olga & Billy Lost in Singapore, a film entirely set in the neighboring country.
Olga's best friend and colleague Raffi Ahmad, who is currently on a minor haj, summarized Olga's life path in a sentence.
'You're bound to heaven,' Raffi tweeted on Friday.
