Ninja Turtles Star In Need Of Help With Kidney Transplant
A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles star is in need of help from fans right now following a kidney transplant procedure he recently had
This article is more than 2 years old
Fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise are going to want to tune into this news because there may be a way to help one of the fan-favorite actors from the original movies. One of them could use some help right now, dealing with some major medical issues. Ernie Reyes, who starred in 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze is having kidney problems and is in need of monetary support to get things right. The actor is coming off a transplant procedure and every dollar counts in making sure he can recover properly.
Ernie Reyes has a GoFundMe page set up now to help pay for his kidney transplant, and the price tag for the procedure is quite high. The goal of the campaign is currently set at $75,000 dollars, with a little over $23,000 raised at the time of this writing. The campaign was set up by his brother who goes into detail around the nature of the issue for Reyes and how Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans and others can contribute. Apparently, the actor has been in need of a kidney transplant for some time and a donor was finally found, in Phoenix, Arizona.
The kidney transplant procedure was a success, but the follow-up exams mean that Reyes will need to stay in Arizona for the time being (he’s from Hawaii). Between the procedure and the after-treatment, the costs are set to run pretty steep. This is where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans can begin to chip in to ensure Reyes is able to get all of the care that he needs post-surgery. The money is also to help support his family during the recovery time seeing as how he won’t be able to work at all. All of this is meant to support the career actor who’s appeared in a number of different productions over the years.
Ernie Reyes played Keno, the pizza delivery boy in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze. He became a fan-favorite character, establishing early that he was more than just a mild-mannered citizen, but also a martial artist. He teams up with the Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael to take down The Foot Clan. That movie, while pretty corny by today’s (and really all) standards, did manage to turn a profit at the box office earning $78 million on its $25 million budget.
But Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze was far from the only work for Ernie Reyes. He had previously starred in the series Sidekicks where his martial arts skills were also on display. That series lasted a season on ABC and was a follow-up to the made-for-TV movie The Last Electric Knight. He was also a stuntman on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in 1990.
Reyes would go on to have roles in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, NCIS: Los Angeles and he currently has a role on Superstore. If Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans want to help him out, be sure to visit the GoFundMe page.
