Fernando Poe Sr.

Allan Fernando Poe y Reyes (November 27, 1916 – October 23, 1951), better known by his stage name Fernando Poe or Fernando Poe Sr., was a Filipino actor during the early cinema era in the Philippines. He was of Spanish descent.
Poe was the father of Fernando Poe Jr., who later became a prominent actor and icon. Prior to his son's rise to fame, Poe had been known simply as Fernando Poe. Since then, he had been named 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, Irish-American Elizabeth "Bessie" Gatbonton Kelley 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 (Catalan: ['pɔw]) 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. (source from a 1951 article about his death)

• Darna (1951)
• Forbidden Women (1948)
• Giliw ko (1939)
• Zamboanga (1938) also known as Fury in Paradise (UK)
• Eseng ng Tondo (1937)