So what makes FPJ cry?
A loss in the family. In a rare free-wheeling interview with The STAR, Da King confessed that the first time he cried really hard was when his younger brother, actor Andy Poe, succumbed to heart attack at dawn in 1995. It took him years to recover from the tragedy, made more painful when his mother, Bessie Kelley Poe, died three years later. FPJ turns misty-eyed when he’s reminded of his dear departed.
FPJ will make many presidential aspirants cry oceans if and when he decides to run for President in 2004. Whether he will or he won’t has remained unresolved. FPJ alone can answer that question that has become a favorite national guessing game.
Today, as he celebrates his 64th birthday (he’s a Leo), FPJ will be having a salu-salo with friends and "those who remember." As usual, no invitation has been sent out. But for sure, well-wishers will come – legions of them!
But, contrary to speculations, FPJ won’t be making any "important announcement" today. As he told The STAR in an exclusive interview over the weekend, "Wala pa akong i-a-announce." Read carefully now, "wala pa..." Oh, well, he has between today and Dec. 15 (deadline of filing of candidacy for the 2004 elections) to make up his mind.
And because it’s Da King’s red-letter day, Funfare is giving him a little tribute by listing down some "FPJ trivia." Here we go:
• He won his first FAMAS Best Actor award in l968 for Mga Alabok sa Lupa (with Divina Valencia as his leading lady) in which he played a fighting priest assigned in a tough slum area.
• His real name is Ronald Allan Poe (no relation to the great poet). The real Fernando Poe, Jr. was his late brother Andy.
• He’s the second among six children of Fernando Poe, Sr. and Bessie Kelley Poe–namely, Elizabeth, FPJ, Andy, Jenny, Frederick and Evangeline.
• He was 10 when his father died. During a shooting on the beach, he was wounded when he stepped on a kabibe. He let one of their four pet puppies lick his wound, thinking it would help it heal faster. He got rabies in the process and died of it.
• The senior Poe reminded FPJ of Captain Von Trapp, played by Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music. He would let FPJ, his brothers and sisters line up and salute to him every morning before they hied off to school.
• His parents wanted FPJ to be a priest but he wanted to be a doctor. Fate destined him to be an actor to carry on the legacy left by his father.
• It was in Anak ni Palaris (1956), directed by the late Mario Barri as a tribute to Poe, Sr.’s hit starrer Palaris, that made FPJ a star. He got P1,000 as talent fee.
• He put up his own company, FPJ Productions, in 1961, with a P60,000 capital (his savings). His first production venture, Kilabot sa Barilan, was produced with the late Zaldy Zshornack as kasosyo.
• FPJ claims that he actually won his first "best actor" award at age seven for a Christmas play at home where he played St. Joseph. He tripped on the Christmas Tree lights and, to appease the embarrassed budding actor, his parents declared him the "best actor" right then and there, with a bagful of marshmallows as "trophy".
• He married Susan Roces on Dec. 25, 1968, with then President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady, Imelda Marcos, among the principal sponsors.
• His favorite singer is Frank Sinatra.
• His favorite song is All The Way.
• His and Susan’s theme song is Somewhere In Your Heart.
• His favorite food is sinigang and paksiw.
• His favorite author is Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, etc.)
• He likes the movies of Gary Cooper, Glen Ford, Richard Widmark, Gregory Peck, James Stewart and Anthony Quinn.
• His favorite movies are Warlock (Anthony Quinn), Gone With The Wind, Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) and Citizen Kane (Orson Welles).
• How does he pray? "Direct to God."
• First foreign movie he ever saw: The Flash Gordon series.
• First local movie he ever saw: Kapitan Bagwis (starring Efren Reyes).
• First car: A 1950 Chevrolet.
• Last thing he does before he sleeps: Pray.
• How he unwinds: "I go to the hills; I walk in the mountains; or I keep to myself by the sea."
• Favorite movies (his own): Aguila, Alupihang Dagat, Asedillo, Ang Panday (Part II), Ako ang Katarungan, Perlas ng Silangan, Santiago, Kamay ni Kain and Mga Alabok sa Lupa.
• First movie with Susan Roces: Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw.
• How he wants to be remembered: "As a simple man who held no grudge against anybody and, hopefully, against whom nobody held any grudge."
Okay, let’s play a little "scrabble":
1. GEORGE BUSH...When re-arranged forms the phrase HE BUGS GORE
2. DORMITORY...When rearranged becomes DIRTY ROOM
3. EVANGELIST... When rearranged becomes EVIL’S AGENT
4. PRESBYTERIAN... When re-arranged becomes BEST IN PRAYER
5. DESPERATION...When re-arranged becomes A ROPE ENDS IT
6. THE MORSE CODE... When re-arranged becomes HERE COME DOTS
7. SLOT MACHINES...When re-arranged becomes CASH LOST IN ME
8. ANIMOSITY...When re-arranged becomes IS NO AMITY
9. MOTHER-IN-LAW... When re-arranged becomes WOMAN HITLER
10. SNOOZE ALARMS... When re-arranged becomes ALAS! NO MORE Z’S
11. A DECIMAL POINT... When re-arranged becomes I’M A DOT IN PLACE
12. THE EARTHQUAKES... When re-arranged becomes THAT QUEER SHAKE
13. ELEVEN PLUS TWO... When re-arranged becomes TWELVE PLUS ONE
14. PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA... When re-arranged (no letter left over and using each letter only once) can form the sentence TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS
Readers’ • From Gia Lara: Will you please help settle a friendly bet among my father and his barkada on Martin Nievera’s real father? Is it Bert Nievera or Luis Tabuena? (Answer: Bert Nievera)
• From Chris Carlos: Is it true that Angela Velez is getting married to Roy Ofek, the ex-boyfriend of Vina Morales and was once also linked to Sharmaine Arnaiz? (Answer: Yes, it’s trrue. According to Angela, they’re getting married before end of the year.)
• From Edwin Castro (California): How can Dolphy be 75 in 2003 when you wrote that he was "sexty-five" in 1988? (Answer: Mea culpa. Dolphy was "sexty" in 1988, the year he and Alma Moreno separated.)
• From Jonathan Anthony Santos: There’s no king and queen in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Each emirate is ruled by a sheik and definitely not a sheika (sheik’s wife).
(E-mail reactions at rickylo@phil-star.net.ph )