FPJ 75th Birth Anniversary

Today, 20 August 2014, is the 75th birth anniversary of National Artist for Film Ronald Allan Poe better known as Fernando Poe, Jr. and colloquially known as FPJ and Da King.

1. Full name is Ronald Allan Kelley Poe.
2. He was the son of Filipino actor Allan Fernando R. Poe (Fernando Poe, Sr.) and Elizabeth Kelley, an American who were not yet legally married when he was born on 20 August 1939, although his parents were later married in 1940.
3. He was born in San Carlos City, Pangasinan.
4. He was the second among six siblings and it was his brother Andy who was really named Fernando Poe, Jr. which FPJ later adopted, to bank on the popularity of his father who was a top actor in his time. Conrad Poe, a Filipino actor is FPJ's half-brother, the illegitimate son of the late Fernando Poe Sr. and actress Patricia Mijares.
5. Pou is the original spelling of the family's surname from his grandfather, playwright Lorenzo Pou, a Catalan migrant from Majorca, Spain, who ventured into mining and business in the Philippines.
6. In 1953 Poe finished his primary education at San Beda College. For high school, he went to San Sebastian College. He continued his education at Mapua Institute of Technology and University of the East. His father died from rabies at age 35, leaving the young Poe as the family's breadwinner. In order to support his family, he was forced to drop out of school. He did not complete high school, but went on to win numerous awards and prizes as an actor and film director.
7. Poe married actress Susan Roces (real name: Jesusa Sonora) in a civil wedding in December 1968. They later married in a religious service and among their primary sponsors were then-President Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda. Poe and Roces adopted a daughter, former MTRCB Chairman and May 2013 senatorial candidate, Grace Poe. Poe was also partnered with Anna Marin and had one son as Ronian and former actress Rowena Moran has one daughter Lourdes Virginia.
8. Fernando Poe Jr., was the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP)'s candidate for the 2004 presidential election when he accepted the nomination in December 2003 and was to be the opposition standard-bearer for the Philippines' 2004 presidential election.
9. Poe was admitted to Saint Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City on the evening of 11 December 2004 after complaining of dizziness at a gathering in his production studio during a Christmas party. He suffered from a stroke and slipped into a coma while being treated for a brain clot. Doctors described his condition as a cerebral thrombosis with multiple organ failure.
10. He died at the age of 65 on 14 December 2004 at 12:01 am, without regaining consciousness and was buried in his family plot along with his father and mother in North Cemetery, Manila, Philippines.
11. On 20 July 2012, President Aquino signed Proclamation No. 435 confirming his posthumous declaration as a National Artist as conferred in Proclamation No. 1069 dated 23 May 2006. 
12. On 14 December 2012, eight (8) years after his death, FPJ was feted with a monument along Roxas Boulevard in Manila. The monument was unveiled at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Arquiza Street, with widow Susan Roces and daughter Grace Poe attending the affair.

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Fernando Poe, Jr.AKA Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, Jr.