Can’t get enough of SAM MILBY

If you go around Metro Manila, particularly if you traverse EDSA, you’re going to get a mega-dose of Sam Milby. His face—boyish, impish, with a rather high swoon factor—is plastered on huge billboards along EDSA and other major thoroughfares, competing for attention with the ubiquitous MMDA pink fences and urinals. With twelve product endorsements—from clothing to hamburgers to watches to vitamins, coffee, and even sardines—there’s no arguing that this cool dude is hot.

"I think it’s his aura more than his handsome face," an ad agency executive says by way of explaining this 22-year-old Fil-Am’s appeal. "He projects a wholesome, educated, uncontroversial personality and an image that the public can trust."

Add to that how obviously easy it is to work with him. For our interview and photo shoot, Sam came prepared with several changes of clothes and a make-up kit. He knew exactly what kind of make-up should be used on him. He didn’t mind at all dressing up several times in the public toilet for the shoot. No fuss, no demands, no tantrums—very un-star if you will, very pleasantly unexpected. And it was a breeze for STAR photographer Jun Mendoza for Sam certainly knows his way in front of cameras.

Sam Milby has indeed come a long way from his simple beginnings in the United States, born and raised in a little known town called Troy in Ohio, which he presumes nobody this side of the Pacific has heard of. So imagine his surprise when I told him I’ve been to Dayton, Ohio. "Serious? You went to Dayton?" he asks, incredulous. "Not a lot of people know Dayton, let alone Ohio itself. It’s not a tourist spot."

Sam grew up on a 12-acre property in that little known spot of the US of A with an average family—an American father, a Filipina mother, and a sister, Ada, who’s only 10 months older than him. His parents have long separated and his father has remarried, giving Sam two half siblings.

"I had a normal, happy childhood. Growing up, I was really close to my sister and my mother," Sam reveals. His father, Lloyd Milby, an entrepreneur from Ohio, is of British-German and Native American descent while his mother, Elsie Lacia who hails from Surigao, has Malay, Chinese and Spanish blood. Obviously, Sam got the best—looks-wise—from this mixed parentage.

"My father got me into sports at an early age," he shares. "When I was around three years old, I learned how to ice skate. We have a family pond and my Dad played hockey with his buddies in the winter time when it freezes over. So my Dad and Mom got me and my sister to learn how to skate."

When he was six he became passionate about the sport and started competing solo and subsequently with a partner. He lived and trained with his coach and joined major figure skating competitions all over the U.S., including the Junior Nationals. By the time he was 15 years old, Sam had won his share of medals and other awards and could comfortably do the double axle, triple toe and triple loop, and was working on perfecting his triple axle, the ultimate test of excellence in figure skating.

"I also got involved in other sports—ice hockey, wrestling, golf, tennis, but my favorite sport is motocross," he says enthusiastically. "I like the adrenaline rush. I used to race but ever since nanakaw ang bike ko I’ve stopped. It’s a dangerous sport. If you do it for six months you’ll eventually get hurt."

Those three words in Filipino tucked into our otherwise all English interview is what is perhaps the crux of the Sam Milby magic.He hasn’t quite mastered the language, but he’s trying, and in the meantime his unmistakably accented Taglish is variably taken as charming—cute might be the appropriate term—or irritating.



But that doesn’t seem to matter one bit, because he is one of the most sought after stars around today. From movies to television to commercials to concerts to personal appearances, his appointment book is quite filled up. He’s taken up a new interest though—photography—and recently bought a professional camera. Although for now he’s only dabbling in this new hobby, he hopes to exhibit his works someday.

But his whole focus nowadays is being in front of the camera. One can’t help but admire his sense of purpose and determination. He may appear nonchalant—really cool—about his recent successes but what’s apparent is that these are not mere strokes of luck: The guy’s feet are firmly grounded and know where they’re headed.

Sam had visited the Philippines on several occasions before he decided to pursue a career in local showbiz. In March 2005 while on vacation in Manila, he made up his mind to stay and seriously make a go for it. After doing the rounds and answering numerous casting calls, he landed bit roles in some TV ads. The one that made people notice him is the Close Up commercial which allowed him to flash his perfect pearly whites in a smile that made kolehiyalas kilig to the bones (do they still say that?) and matronas drop into a swoon.

But his big break came in August 2005 with the first edition of the reality TV show "Pinoy Big Brother."

"I didn’t know what Big Brother was because I’ve never watched the show before," he relates. "I did a quick audition thinking it was for the second season, but when Jenny, one of the original 12 contestants, had to quit the show due to some urgent family matters, they put me in as replacement."

Sam quickly got the eye of the public for his good looks, his endearing personality, and more importantly for his talent as a singer. Unfortunately, he got voted out after 49 days—some say on purpose in order to take advantage of his being the current hot item with the public. True or not, this Pinoy Big Brother stint launched his showbiz career—and how!—initially as a singer, and subsequently as a TV and film actor.

Sam’s progress may be called phenomenal, even by Pinoy showbiz standards. Immediately, he received a recording contract and cut his first album, which has now gone platinum. The guy has a talent for music and composition. Although his baritone voice is raspy like Alex Band of the rock group The Calling, it blends well with the Filipino songs and old favorites like "Only You" and "My Girl" that are featured in his hit album.

His movie and television career is also on the upswing. Sam’s first movie, "Close to You" with Star Cinema mainstays John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo, grossed P120 million. At present he’s shooting a new movie, "Huli Ka," a romantic action comedy with Toni Gonzaga and Zanjoe Merudo, where Sam plays an offbeat role, that of a balikbayan. Again, his handicap is his mastery of Filipino which limits the roles he can play, but the guy is trying hard, not only by striving to answer questions during the interview in halting and sometimes funny Tagalog, but by seriously taking formal Filipino lessons.

In his popular teleserye "Maging Sino Ka Man," one can’t help but notice that his lines are getting to be increasingly in Filipino. He manages to get through his lines, but one can’t help but notice too that his acting has tremendously improved.

"I know I have a long way to go, but after ‘Close To You’ through ‘Maging Sino Ka Man,’ I feel I’ve made a big improvement. It’s been pretty much I learn as I go," Sam confesses. "I’m a perfectionist. If I’m not happy with a scene, I request for a retake. I was so happy when I got this text message from my Mom who watches my teleserye on the TFC (The Filipino Channel) in the U.S. ‘Hi sweetie, your Dad is mad because you made him cry.’ I guess she was referring to one of my scenes with ChinChin who plays my mother in ‘Maging Sino Ka Man.’"

Sam was recently featured in a sold-out concert at the Music Museum, Hearthrobs, with another hearthrob Piolo Pascual, whose personality and career path, the media claims, is pretty similar to that of Sam Milby.

Both are of mixed parentage, both are talented singers-actors, both are much sought after product endorsers, both are drop-dead gorgeous and have a wide fan base, and both are also loveless. But neither of them is in a hurry. Right now Sam is still much too focused on his sky-rocketing showbiz career to worry about his lovelife. Perhaps like Piolo, let’s all let him be and just revel at the way he’s brought a breath of fresh air into the Philippine entertainment industry.