Fernando Poe Sr (November 27, 1916 – October 23, 1951)

Fernando Poe Sr

Allan Fernando Poe y Reyes (November 27, 1916 – October 23, 1951) was a Filipino actor and film director during the early era of cinema in the Philippines.

Poe was the father of Fernando Poe Jr., who later became a prominent actor and film industry icon. Prior to his son's rise to fame, he was known as Fernando Poe; he was later referred to as Fernando Poe Sr. to distinguish him from his son. He directed the first Darna film in 1951 before he died in the same year. As a leading man, he was often cast opposite Mona Lisa.

Poe was born in San Carlos City, Pangasinan, and later had six children by his second wife, Elizabeth "Bessie" Gatbonton Kelley (November 8, 1917 – March 2, 1999) of Pampanga: Elizabeth, Ronald Allan, Fernando II (Andy), Genevieve (Jenny), Fredrick (Freddieboy), and Evangeline. Poe and Kelly were married in 1940 after their first two children were born. Actor Conrad Poe, meanwhile, was his illegitimate son by actress Patricia Mijares.

The original spelling of his surname was Pou via his father, playwright Lorenzo Pou, a Catalan immigrant from Majorca in the Balearic Islands. Pou established a mining business in the Philippines and married a Pangasinense woman named Marta Reyes.

Poe graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of the Philippines in 1935 and the degree of Doctor of Dental Medicine from the Philippine Dental College in 1942.

Poe died in 1951 while working on a film, after he had permitted a rabid puppy to lick his wound.

Filmography

Courtesy of Video48