A Few Good Men Acting Now

Alex, however, got into some bad company.

- Jocelyn T. Valle

In the 2017 edition of YES! Magazine’s “100 Most Beautiful Stars” special issue, Pen Medina and his four sons—Karl, Ping, Alex, and Victor—are in the solo category aptly called “The Medina Men.”

The selection of the Medina men as part of the annual YES! list recognizes Pen as an acting institution who has built his career on consistently laudable performances and who has passed on the same artistic passion to his progeny. The 67-year-old actor started out in theater productions in his youth and then crossed over to film, via Ishmael Bernal’s 1982 opus, Himala, and eventually to TV, where he’s currently seen in the top-rating drama series Ika-6 na Utos.

At the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), he won the award for best supporting actor twice—for Muro Ami in 1999 and for 10,000 Hours in 2013. He also bagged best supporting actor trophies from the Film Academy of the Philippines (FAP), for Deathrow in 2001, and from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS), also for 10,000 Hours. Most recently, on September 3, 2017, the Star Awards for Movies honored him with the Nora Aunor Ulirang Artista Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pen is also a man of his word. He had promised that he would attend the July 11 launch of the “100 Most Beautiful Stars” issue at the Luxent Hotel in Quezon City, and he showed up as promised—never mind if the program had already ended, though a lot of people were still around. He had come all the way from the Makati Medical Center (where he had visited an ailing friend and fellow actor, Spanky Manikan) and had taken the chance to drop by the QC venue so he could join his sons in showing support for the YES! event.

FATHER & SONS