Then & now, Fil-Ams dominate showbiz

It’s been rightly noted that showbiz teems with mestizos and mestizas, many of them Fil-Ams. Think of Sam Milby, Matt Evans, Carla Humphries, Melissa Ricks, Irish Fullerton, Will Devaughn, Megan and Lauren Young, Serena Dalrymple, Billy Crawford and Gerald Anderson. Their last names are a giveaway.

How about those with Italian blood? Paolo Contis, Lloyd Samartino, Nancy Castiglione, Assunta and Alessandra de Rossi, Vanessa del Bianco and Stefano Mori come to mind. By the way, whatever happened to Vanessa and Stefano?

Every other star has Spanish blood, but the fathers of Marian Rivera, the controversial Nadia Montenegro, and Jake Cuenca are pure Spaniards.

Young stars of Arab descent include the Agassi brothers (Carlos, Michael and Aaron), Kian Kazemi and Yasmien Kurdi. But before them came Dawn Zulueta, Monsour del Rosario and Kuh Ledesma whose mothers trace their roots to the Middle East.

Piolo Pascual and Nadine Samonte have German blood. Anne Curtis is half-Australian. Charlie Green’s father is British. Iwa Moto’s father is Japanese, but isn’t that obvious?

The bumper crop of mestizos and mestizas could be traced to Filipinos working overseas and marrying nationals of the countries where they live.

It’s not really new since from way, way, back Fil-Ams ruled, in a manner of speaking, Philippine Movies. Look, pre-war movie queens Rosa del Rosario and Carmen Rosales were American mestizas. Offcam, Rosa was Rose Stagner and Carmen was Januaria Keller.

And who followed Rose and Mameng? In the ‘50s? Gloria Borego Galla (Gloria Romero) and Dorothy Jones (Nida Blanca), both Fil-Ams.

Ditto Anita Linda (Alice Lake), Erlinda Cortez (Mary Poone), Myrna Delgado (Betty Hill), Lolita Rodriguez (Lolita Clark), Elvira Reyes (Gloria Madison), Lilia Dizon (Caroline Strauss), Paraluman (Sigrid Von Giese), Delia Razon (Lucy May Grytz) and Rosa Rosal (Florence Dannon).

The “first Italian” in local movies is Linda Estrella (Consuelo Rigotti), mother of child star of the ‘50s Tessie Agana.

Among the actors, those with foreign blood include Mario Montenegro (Roger Collin Macalalag, French mother,) Ric Rodrigo (Paul Albert Bregendahl, Danish father), Eddie Mesa (Eduardo Eigenmann, Swiss-German father), Fernando Poe Jr. (Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, American mother) and Ronald Remy (Ronald Kookooritchin, Russian father).

Come to think of it, the movie queens of the ‘60s, Susan Roces and Amalia Fuentes, are also mestizas. Susan has French blood, and Amalia, German. Their leading men were mostly mestizos: Jose Mari, Eddie Gutierrez, Dante Rivero and Ronaldo Valdez.

But Nora Aunor toppled the mestizas from their thrones in the ‘70s. She is dark and short. The other queen, Vilma Santos, is also petite, but then she’s very fair.

But the mestizos and mestizas are back. Think of Kristine Hermosa, KC Concepcion, Richard Gutierrez, Polo Ravales, Dingdong Dantes, Bea Alonzo, Iza Calzado, Ruffa Gutierrez, Aiko Melendez, Maja Salvador and Angelica Panganiban.

But this time, there’s room for Pinoy-looking stars like Sarah Geronimo, John Lloyd Cruz, Angel Locsin, Judy Ann Santos, Vhong Navarro, Toni Gonzaga, Jericho Rosales, Carlo Aquino and Roxanne Guinoo.

What’s up?

• Beta Sigma Lyceum chapter is celebrating its 38th founding anniversary today, 3 p.m. at Wallen’s along Mindanao Ave. in Quezon City. Among the distinguished alumni of Beta Sigma Lyceum chapter is award-winning film director Joel Lamangan.

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