Ate Gay, the Filipino comedian and singer who spent three decades impersonating screen legend Nora Aunor, died Sunday, Nov. 1, his family announced. He was 55.
“After bravely fighting for his life, while surrounded by his family, our beloved Ate Gay has peacefully passed away,” the family of Gil Aducal Morales wrote on his Instagram account Sunday night. The memorial card in the post gives his birth date as Aug. 12, 1971.
He’d gone public with stage 4 cancer in September 2025. He was admitted to Asian Hospital and Medical Center on Oct. 17 with septic shock and acute respiratory failure from pneumonia, GMA News reported.
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How Gil Morales Became Ate Gay at the Music Box
Morales was born poor in Tondo, Manila. As a boy, he collected bets in the jueteng numbers game for his mother, he said on GMA’s “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho” in 2025, according to GMA News.
His break came when he walked into the Music Box comedy bar and sang “Kahit Konting Awa,” Aunor’s theme from “The Flor Contemplacion Story.” The owner was a Noranian, as Aunor’s fans call themselves, and assumed Morales was lip-syncing because he sounded so much like her, GMA reported. Aunor’s nickname was Ate Guy. Morales became Ate Gay.
In 2009, he invited a new college graduate named Boobay down from Baguio. “Pakikilala kita kay Ms Allan K,” he promised, offering to introduce him to comedian Allan K. Boobay auditioned at Klownz and got hired, he recalled on “Eat Bulaga!” in 2020, GMA News reported.
Nora Aunor Called Her Impersonator Her Idol, Too
On Nov. 30, 2012, he headlined his first major concert, “Ako Naman… Ate Gay sa Arena,” at the Mall of Asia Arena. Aunor was his special guest, and she hugged him onstage before the finale, PEP.ph reported.
“Salamat naimbitahan ako ni Ate Gay kasi idol ko rin siya,” Aunor said, calling him her idol, too.
His mother was delighted. “Natuwa ang nanay ko kasi nakasama ko ang idol niya at idol ko,” he said. He’d shared a stage with her idol and his own.
Aunor died April 16, 2025, at 71, GMA Regional TV reported. (Filipino American “Drag Race” star Jiggly Caliente died that same month. Manila Luzon eulogized her.)
At Aunor’s wake in Taguig, Ate Gay sang “Kahit Konting Awa” for her, the Inquirer reported. “I became Ate Gay for three decades because of you, Ms. Nora Aunor,” he wrote on Facebook, in the paper’s translation. “She didn’t stop us from impersonating her,” he said of Aunor.
His Stage 4 Cancer Diagnosis and Allan K’s Benefit Show
“I was told I might not even make it past 2026. That was very painful for me,” he said on “Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho” in September 2025, as quoted in English by the Daily Tribune.
The tumor below his right ear had grown and started bleeding after a show in Canada, Philstar Life reported.
Allan K spoke at a benefit show that month. “From the very beginning, I wanted to hold a benefit show for him, but he never agreed,” he told the crowd, the Daily Tribune reported. Then he read a text from Ate Gay. “I still want to live,” it said.
He kept taking the stage, and some audiences were startled to see him there. “I tell them, ‘I’m alive. I’m alive, I’m not dead,'” he told broadcaster Karen Davila in an interview the Daily Tribune quoted in August. “As long as you are alive, you should be happy.”
Ate Gay’s Living Funeral in Biñan, Then the ICU
On Oct. 15, family and friends joined him at Forest Lake Memorial Parks in Biñan, Laguna, for a living funeral, Philstar reported. Comedian Boobsie Wonderland and content creator Arman Salon gave eulogies. The guest of honor, GMA noted, was “very much alive.”
He captioned his photos “Celebration of Life … Undasko 2026.” Undas is the Filipino observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Nov. 1 and 2.
He was rushed to the hospital two days later and moved to intensive care. The family asked the public for help with a hospital bill that had hit 2.4 million pesos, the Daily Tribune reported. A stroke on Oct. 29 damaged the right side of his brain, the family said, GMA reported.
On Oct. 31, they pushed back on false reports that he’d died. “Please understand that he is still alive and continues to fight for his life,” the family wrote, GMA reported. He died the next day.
Heart Evangelista, who he said had sent him help every month, posted “Rest na angel” to her Instagram Stories. Comedian Tuesday Vargas called him an “absolute titan of comedy” on Facebook. “For more than a year you fought a hard battle and yet you stayed soft and kind,” she wrote, GMA News reported.
In their announcement of his death, the family said funeral details would follow. “Details regarding his wake and funeral arrangements will be announced soon,” they said.
