Fernando Poe, Jr. 1939 -2004
The King is dead.
In the early 70's, my family was based in Davao Oriental in Mindanao. In front of our house was a moviehouse, Envir Theathre. This was where I watched movies almost every week for the child of the owner was a friend and the tiketera always let me in for free. Two features werre always shown- one in English and the other in tagalog. Sometimes, 3 movies are shown for the price of one.
Tagalog movies then were in black and white, and before Bruce Lee, most of the films were comedies and drama. What I liked most were the war and cowboy films by Fernando Poe, Jr. Fast in handling a gun and faster in giving multiple blows to the bad guys, FPJ was my hero! Sometimes, it seems that the bullets in his submachinegun were endless. Just the same, we did not mind. The japs were getting creamed in the end of the movie - after giving FPJ a hard time in the beginning. I can't remember a film where FPJ died. Maybe he did. But I guess it willbe less than 5 films in over 300 that he did in his lifetime.
I think it was FPJ who began showing his films in Color. I really am not sure but maybe he is one of the very first producers who began shooting color films. Sometimes, I notice that the scenes were shot in the day time but were darkened a bit to simuklate night-time.
It will not be 15 years later where I got to see Da King in the flesh.
We were then living in Northern Quezon City when I heard that FPJ was in the area and shooting a film. So off I went in my trsusty bicycle and pedaled two kilometers to the main highway ( dirt road pa lang ang Commonwealth Ave in Fairview ). Then in the place where a Bus terminal now stands, FPJ was in front of me in the flesh. I really want to talk to him but he was working. And I was just content in gawking at him.
Lasy year, he ran for the Presidency. I really had misgivings about his candidacy. I felt that he was just being used by veteran politicians masquerading as opposition candidates when in fact they all belong to the same clique of EDSA 1 personalites. True enough, the opposition was split and the occupier of Malacanang slipped through the elections by the skin of her buck teeth and the help of Cebuano politics.
FPJ returned to the quiet life..until December 11, 2004 when the news flash on TV said he slipped into a coma at St. Lukes.
In the early 70's, my family was based in Davao Oriental in Mindanao. In front of our house was a moviehouse, Envir Theathre. This was where I watched movies almost every week for the child of the owner was a friend and the tiketera always let me in for free. Two features werre always shown- one in English and the other in tagalog. Sometimes, 3 movies are shown for the price of one.
Tagalog movies then were in black and white, and before Bruce Lee, most of the films were comedies and drama. What I liked most were the war and cowboy films by Fernando Poe, Jr. Fast in handling a gun and faster in giving multiple blows to the bad guys, FPJ was my hero! Sometimes, it seems that the bullets in his submachinegun were endless. Just the same, we did not mind. The japs were getting creamed in the end of the movie - after giving FPJ a hard time in the beginning. I can't remember a film where FPJ died. Maybe he did. But I guess it willbe less than 5 films in over 300 that he did in his lifetime.
I think it was FPJ who began showing his films in Color. I really am not sure but maybe he is one of the very first producers who began shooting color films. Sometimes, I notice that the scenes were shot in the day time but were darkened a bit to simuklate night-time.
It will not be 15 years later where I got to see Da King in the flesh.
We were then living in Northern Quezon City when I heard that FPJ was in the area and shooting a film. So off I went in my trsusty bicycle and pedaled two kilometers to the main highway ( dirt road pa lang ang Commonwealth Ave in Fairview ). Then in the place where a Bus terminal now stands, FPJ was in front of me in the flesh. I really want to talk to him but he was working. And I was just content in gawking at him.
Lasy year, he ran for the Presidency. I really had misgivings about his candidacy. I felt that he was just being used by veteran politicians masquerading as opposition candidates when in fact they all belong to the same clique of EDSA 1 personalites. True enough, the opposition was split and the occupier of Malacanang slipped through the elections by the skin of her buck teeth and the help of Cebuano politics.
FPJ returned to the quiet life..until December 11, 2004 when the news flash on TV said he slipped into a coma at St. Lukes.