UPDATE: Tuesday 04/14/09

Please leave your funniest stories, jokes and memories of Oliver here and on his profile . . . the family does appreciate
all the love and loves to hear the stories.

For everyone who has been asking what they can do or where they can send flowers or money, I am posting this recent letter from Ollies sister . . .

Upon making all the funeral arrangements, we have come to discover that many of you have asked where you can send flowers or money for the funeral arrangements.  In lieu of flowers we request that you donate to the Oliver Mendoza Memorial Fund in order to assist us with the funeral expenses, as they have to so much more than we had expected.  It can be as little as $5, each dollar counts! 


I bet Ollie's saying "Making ONE BILLION DOLLARS!" with a pinky to hip lip --- because he was always such a goofball. :-)

Please make check payable to:

Antoinette Olimpiada –OR- Jennifer Tran Mendoza


Please write in the Memo section: Oliver Mendoza Memorial Fund


If you are not able to make it to any of the services, you may also deposit your check at any Wells Fargo branch and provide them with Account # 1405400381.


Thank you all for your love and support!

Sincerly,

Antoinette M. Olimpiada



For those of you that knew Oliver or did not know him . . . he was an amazing talent and just a great guy!  The following message was posted by his sister Antoinette, please stop by his page and pay your respects.

He will be missed . . . God Bless you Ollie!


Hi Everyone,

This is Ollie's sister Antoinette. Last night around 7:00 my brother had a seizure during a photo shoot. Beforehand he was complaining about a headache. There was a rupture of the blood vessel located in the back of his neck. The bleeding eventually reached to his brain and doctor believes that he was already passing by the time he reached UCSF hospital. and according to the doctor, since it happened so suddenly he most likely did not suffer.

We will know more details for his wake and burial tomorrow and I will be sure to keep everyone updated. I was fortunate enough to be able to access his facebook account only because he never logged out, so if I am not able to access this account again you can email me at [email protected]. This way I can update everyone about the coming events in the next few days.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, God Bless. I know my brother is in a much better place now and if anything, he left this world doing what he loves to do the most in this world --- taking photos.

The Mendoza Family

If you knew him or not . . . Ollie was the bomb!!!

https://www.modelmayhem.com/2349

Ill miss my Ollie Bollie Bear tons... I am luky to have hung w him on a few of my trips his way.

He was one true sweetheart... funny as hell..

luv u ollieeeeeee

xoxo
Tig and the drunk chickens

I will miss you Oli I can't believe this in such a state of shock.Guess we will never enjoy our strawberries and champagne now. You were such a good friend I am glad to know you are in a better place.

Oli, God Bless you brother. You will be missed my friend.

:*(

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend and hope that his family and friends have the strength to get through this tough time. My condolescences.

Damn, so tragic and unexpected

RIP Oli, my condolences to the family.

RIP

OMG! we were good friends and talked alot!

Ill miss ya, youve been soo kind!
RIP Olive

Oliver was a good friend.
I came in tonight to Rick Dones snagging me as soon as I got online with the news. Im speechless, and sit here shocked and saddened that we lost him so young.
My wishes to the family...and Ollie.....2.0 and pimp hand to you!
You will be soooooooooooooo missed...Love you!

He will be missed ...... we always talked about gettng together but we kept missing each other...

Oliver and I had spoken many times about shooting (though we never got to connect), many times about silly things.... his messages always made my day.

Best of luck over there, Ollie.

My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

Oliver Mendoza was one of the 'good guys'. A true artist and professional. And a friend, even across 3000 miles. Olie greeted me in Shout Box every morning as he was finishing up his work day, and mine was just getting started. We'd always joke that "OMG, Albert's in shout box!!  It must be 5am !!!".

We had plans to meet up in L.A. in a month, for the Glamourcon weekend, and I was really looking forward to it. It's gonna be a very sad trip for me now, and I will toast to Olie that night. I hope all our MM friends come by and join me.

I wish strength and love to the Mendoza family. You Olie was a very special person. We will be singing his praises for years to come.

Rest in Peace, my brother.

awww....so sad for everyone and Oliver's family.  Rest in Peace, Ollie.

remember this - he passed doing what he loved to do - working on set.    now THAT is how all the greats go.

I consider myself very fortunate to have had Oli as a friend for the past four years. I only wish I could have seen him last time that was back in California. He'll be sorely missed by many. My condolences go out to his family. I'll definitely miss my Olicakes. He was the best!

WHAT? ahh man...sad news to hear.

my condolences to his family...

Ollie "OM Meng"!!

My deepest condolences to the Mendoz Family & Friends....

Ollie,

Damn bro, you left us too soon, but a  higher power has something greater in mind for you.....your soul & spirit lives on for an eternity.....yet we will miss your creativity, your humor and energy....Fly on Brother!   RIP

M-A

Olli Pop!!!!!! Gonna miss you RIP

Never got to meet him in person.  He was a great guy, very funny and a very talented photographer.  We are all better for having known him.  I will miss him in Shout.  Rest in Peace, Oliver.

gos bless olivizzle mendizzle.  an inspiration to me personally though i never met him.  absolutely a class act.  i am so saddened.  so saddened.  if my tiny post can let his family know how he positively impacted other artists (though i am a wannabe compared to him) than i hope they read this. goodbye friend.

Oli ... you're gonna be missed by all of us man ..

I don't think I'll ever eat another bite of a juicy hot manapua without thinking about you!   

Keep a watch out over us here at The Mayhem, will ya?
You left us doing what you loved .. thank you for all of the good times ..

Aloha Brudda Oli ..

Ollie was funny in the MM shoutbox... I miss his sense of humor.

Rest in peace, Ollie...

* bows head *

I showed with Ollie at the SF Fetish ball in 2008, he was was one of the cool ones indeed. = (

oh my god. thats horrible
rest in peace brother.

this is horrible.

wasn't he really young?

May he rest in Peace!

R.I.P.

I loved his work and, especially, his sense of humor. I never met him, but I'm sure he was great to be around.

R.I.P. Oli.....you will always be with us and inspire us further.

I did a shoot the other day and the model reminded me a lot of James Dean so I looked at one of his quotes and wrote it on the image...

"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today"

Oli is another reason to think this way and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family! A very nice person who will be missed.

Peace,

Ant

It takes a great artist to inspire, thanks Olli, R.I.P. "Shoot the Sky's"

Got this message from his sister and wanted to pass it on . . . please visit his and Brandons profile to send you love and share your thoughts and stories!

"All I ask is that if anyone on MM had any great memories of my brother, please feel free to post it on his MM profile. I know my brother had a TON of friends and I'm sure a lot of online buddies like yourself :-), so it's always great to hear how he has affected the lives of those around him."

Oh Wow.......I actually responded to his casting call a few weeks ago. Ive always been a fan of this mans work and wanted to work with him. This is a shock and Im very sorry for the loss. My thoughts are with you and your family

Such a shame. He was a fabulous talent.

I have known Olivehead for 3-4 years, so I was looking through my yahoo messenger archives of our convos through the years...and found myself laughing and thought I'd share these with you in hopes that they'll raise your spirits and make you smile and laugh....The last thing Oliver wants is for us to be crying...god knows he always made me smile and laugh...and I've got a good hunch that is what he wants us to be doing right now...

A quote of his:

"Oliver Mendoza: no worries, i'm all hopped up on Bacardi and Klondike bars"

Some funny convos we've had throughout the years:

"Nikki Crome: it's different
Nikki Crome: i like different
Nikki Crome: like Oliver
Nikki Crome: or Olivehead
Nikki Crome: my wittle owivehead
Oliver Mendoza: ahahaha
Oliver Mendoza: am i different?
Nikki Crome: i hope so
Nikki Crome: i don't like usual people
Nikki Crome: they're boring
Nikki Crome: and make me yawn
Nikki Crome: lol
Oliver Mendoza: eh, i think i'm just quirky
Oliver Mendoza: hard to say
Nikki Crome: lol
Nikki Crome: how about spunky?
Nikki Crome: unique?
Oliver Mendoza: ah!!! i'm definitely dorky
Nikki Crome: i'm dorky!
Oliver Mendoza: me and Dan were sayin that's why we get along so well
cuz we're huge dorks
Nikki Crome: i'm a HUUUUGE dork
Oliver Mendoza: you ARE?? hmmmmm you'll have to kick it with me....it's so hard to gauge dorkiness online"

"Oliver Mendoza: in the shoutbox, i told my friend Sara that i had a manwich for her buns
Oliver Mendoza: and it's true...we made sloppy joe's earlier"

"Oliver Mendoza: sheit, watch me go insult Dan
Nikki Crome: dan who?
Oliver Mendoza: Santoni
Nikki Crome: why would you do that?
Oliver Mendoza: cuz it's hilaaaarious
Nikki Crome: hmm
Nikki Crome: he seems like a nice guy
Oliver Mendoza: oh, he's a totally nice guy
Oliver Mendoza: i was just drinking with him on Sunday
Oliver Mendoza: Dan is hella cool
Oliver Mendoza: his girlfriend's hella cool
Oliver Mendoza: he's a huge dork like me
Oliver Mendoza: but we insult each other in public all the time"

"Oliver Mendoza: i used to have this line on my profile
Oliver Mendoza: never underestimate the guy with the disposable camera
Oliver Mendoza: and people would keep emailing me going 'i can't believe you shot those with a disposable camera'
Oliver Mendoza: dumbasses"

"Oliver Mendoza: gahhhh, i just spent two hours converting files and sending em off
Oliver Mendoza: and i go check my email, and someone else has emailed me with a list of photos to edit
Oliver Mendoza: photography, you are an evil bitch
Nikki Crome: awww
Nikki Crome: what got you into photography?
Oliver Mendoza: my drawing's sucked
Oliver Mendoza: nah, i denno how i got into photography....it's all kind of the same for me...photography and illustration, design....it's all different aspects of the same stuff for me"

"Nikki Crome: i need juice
Oliver Mendoza: i'm pumped full of Gatorade and Pepsi
Nikki Crome: eh
Nikki Crome: i had a gatorade allready
Nikki Crome: that doesn't keep you awake
Nikki Crome: pop?
Nikki Crome: thats weak
Nikki Crome: get some damn espresso
Nikki Crome: then talk to me
Nikki Crome: pfft
Nikki Crome: amateur
Nikki Crome: lol
Nikki Crome: :-P
Oliver Mendoza: i will now have to come to chicago jus to smack you"

"Nikki Crome: he's not the sharpest tool in the box
Oliver Mendoza: couple donuts shy of a dozen
Nikki Crome: few cards short of a deck
Oliver Mendoza: couple crayons short of a box
Nikki Crome: dammit
Nikki Crome: gimmie a minute
Oliver Mendoza: ahaha
Oliver Mendoza: i like you, you make me smile
Nikki Crome: a few cubes short of a tray?
Nikki Crome: lmao
Nikki Crome: i got nuthin
Oliver Mendoza: that's a good one"

"[email protected]: ok well i'm gonna get back to washing dishes
Oliver Mendoza: naked?
[email protected]: no
[email protected]: it's freezing here
Oliver Mendoza: not in my imagination
[email protected]: shuddup
[email protected]: gotta stay focused today
Oliver Mendoza: ahaha
[email protected]: just had to show you my marked up mug
Oliver Mendoza: you're the best!!!
[email protected]: lmao
[email protected]: not the best
[email protected]: but i'm close
[email protected]:
Oliver Mendoza: pssshtt
Oliver Mendoza: close enough
[email protected]: ok later potater
Oliver Mendoza: you make me smile
[email protected]: good
Oliver Mendoza: and also point and laugh
[email protected]: i like making people smile
Oliver Mendoza: peez in tha middle east"

More to come....I've got 4 years of archives to read...but I need some sleep...

Hope these brought some laughter to all of you!

It took a text message to me in LA from a mutual friend in Cleveland to learn of Olivers death. Such was Oliver's large circle of friends.

I had a special MM bond with Oliver because so many people here on MM thought either HE stole my photos or I stole his. It was a humorous joke that the two of us shared. We both had to explain innumerable times that the photos in question were produced by the two of us photographing side by side at the same time during a shared, wonderful moment of creation. It was during that shoot that Oliver and I became friends. After that there were many moments of humorous jostling and interest in each others lives and the wonderful possibilities. I'll miss Oliver!

-Gaylord-