Remembering Da KIng

Today, we remember the late King of Philippine Movies, Fernando Poe Jr. who was born on August 20, 1939. In real life, he was known as Ronald Allan Kelley Poe.

Whenever a film stars FPJ, it was always expected to be a box office sensation. I can still remember our jam-packed movie houses whenever an FPJ movie was shown. I for one am a fan!

During the peak of his career, there was a common story in Mindanao that when a villain succeeded in hurting FPJ, the screen just literally got peppered with bullets by the moviegoers. These incidents prompted film producers and directors to make it a point not to kill him in his movies to avoid similar incidents.

FPJ always played hero in his films who fought for the common man. This won for him the respect and admiration of the Filipinos. He was also famous for immortalizing Ang Panday, a comic book character by Carlo J. Caparas.

Fernando Poe Jr. ran an unsuccessful bid for the presidency against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the 2004 Philippine Presidential elections. A few months later on December 14, 2004, he passed away due to cerebral thrombosis with multiple organ failure.

On May 24, 2006 he was honored as Philippine National Artist through Philippine Proclamation No. 1065.

Featured above are the Panday movies of FPJ. Below it is a souvenir sheet released by Philpost on November 17, 2008 the highlights Carlo J. Caparas' komics super hero Panday.