Urian Best Actor honor roll

One of the highlights of this year’s Gawad Urian on May 11 at the Araneta Coliseum (to be produced by APT Productions) is the reunion of the acting winners of the past 25 years. Some of the winners, sadly, have already passed away. Their outstanding achievements on film, however, will forever linger in the hearts of many lovers of Filipino movies. Below, let us recall some of the past Urian acting winners (both living and those who’ve gone ahead of us) and the films that won for them the nod of the Manunuri members.

The late Vic Silayan was the first Urian winner for Best Actor (for Ligaw na Bulaklak in 1976). Later, he won two more trophies from the Manunuri: Best Actor for Kisapmata in 1981 and Best Supporting Actor for Karnal in 1983. But I think he delivered his best performance (the best among his best) in Kisapmata. As the domineering head of the Carandang family (the story is based on Nick Joaquin’s true-to-life crime story, The House on Zapote Street which was published in the Free Press in 1961), he rules the household like a fascist dictator. And Silayan is very effective in this role. You quiver at the thunderous sound of his voice and you are intimidated by his mere presence on the screen. I really can’t imagine anyone else in this role. And no one could have done it better than the late great Vic Silayan.

Christopher de Leon was also among the early acting winners of the Gawad Urian. The first time he won was in 1978 (for Ikaw ay Akin). In 1990, he won again for My Other Woman, where I think he gave an even better performance. He is really outstanding here in his role as a married pilot who falls for the charms of a single girl, played by Alice Dixson. In 1996, I thought he was going to win another Urian for his inspired performance in Sa Ngalan ng Pagibig, where he plays the part of an advertising executive (married to Lorna Tolentino) who goes wayward and has an extramarital affair with Alma Concepcion. (He’s obviously good at playing philandering husbands.) Unfortunately for him, he faced tough competition in the person of Aga Muhlach, who eventually won for Sana Maulit Muli.

Aga, by the way, is also a two-time Urian acting winner. He was only 17 when he won his first Urian as Best Supporting Actor for Napakasakit, Kuya Eddie. By the time he won his Best Actor trophy, he was already a far more mature actor ready to tackle complicated roles like the one he did in Sana Maulit Muli (with Lea Salonga). In this movie by Olive Lamasan, we see Aga’s transformation – first as an accomplished advertising executive who is full of self-confidence and, later as a near broken man working without legal papers in the US. His performance (and that, too, of Lea Salonga) really carried this film (it also won Best Picture) from beginning up to the very end.

Phillip Salvador is another brilliant actor whose performances have helped propel his films to great artistic heights. Salvador, incidentally, holds the distinction of being the first to win the Urian Best Actor award twice in a row (in 1982 for Cain at Abel and 1983 for Karnal). In 1985, he added another trophy to his collection when he won his third Urian Best Actor award (for Kapit sa Patalim). At the end of the decade, he was eventually adjudged Best Actor of the ’80s, along with the late Vic Silayan.

The ’90s clearly belonged to Richard Gomez who won three Urian Best Actor awards during this decade. It was actually from the Urian where Gomez got his first acting award – a really well-deserved one for Hihintayin Kita sa Langit. His best scene here is the part where he listens behind a wall as Dawn Zulueta belittles his character (as a stable boy). Without a single dialogue, you see him crumbling little by little until he is unable to take it anymore. It is a difficult scene, no doubt. But the bright actor that he is (and with the proper guideline from his director, Carlos Siguion Reyna), he accomplished it with brilliance. Two years later, he again won the Urian Best Actor award twice in a row at that: for Saan Ka Man Naroroon in 1993 and Wating in 1994. Last year, Richard Gomez joined the elite club of Phillip Salvador and Vic Silayan and was named the Best Actor of the ’90s. (He delivered a wonderful and heartfelt acceptance speech during the awards presentation held at the UP Theater.)

Ricky Davao (along with Raymond Bagatsing) also shone as an actor in the ’90s. In 1995, he was adjudged Best Supporting Actor in Ipaglaban Mo, the Movie, where he plays the spurned suitor/rapist of Chin-Chin Gutierrez. Then, as the decade drew to a close, he was named Best Actor by the Urian in 1999 as the abusive cop in Saranggola. On Saturday, May 11, he is making his bid for his third Urian acting trophy for playing the part of the cantankerous baker who forges a bond with a teenager (Carlo Aquino, also a Best Actor nominee) in Minsan, May Isang Puso.

(To be continued)