Lou Diamond Phillips: Half-Filipino

*Best known for playing Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie La Bamba

Birthday:February 17, 1962
Birth name: Lou Diamond Upchurch

Acclaimed Hollywood actor Lou Diamond Phillips is of dual heritage — his late father was an American sailor and his mother Lucita is Filipina. He was born Lou Upchurch at a U.S. navy hospital in the Philippines in 1962. His step-father, from whom he acquired the surname he is currently using, was also a navy sailor.

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Rob Schneider is part Filipino?

* In October 2017, in the wake of the Harry Weinstein scandal, Rob Schneider revealed that he too experienced an unwanted sexual advance in Hollywood; in his case, from a male director who has since died and whose identity he refrained from revealing.

Hollywood comedian Rob Schneider is of dual heritage — his father is Jewish and his mother Pilar is half-Filipina. That makes him quarter-Filipino!

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Victoria Manalo-Draves, Olympic Diver

Vicki Draves was featured as a Google Doodle on August 3, 2020

Victoria Manalo-Draves was a biracial member of the US Olympic team that competed in London in 1948. She was the first woman of Filipino heritage to represent the United States, and the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in both springboard diving and platform diving.

Life magazine named her one of the top two American athletes of the London Olympics.

Vickie Draves (“V.M. Draves”) being watched by fellow Olympic diver and mentor Sammy Lee at the pool’s sidelines.

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Marvin Somodio

Assistant to Freddie Roach, trainer at Wilcard Boxing.

Marvin Somodio officially joined Team Pacquiao in the middle of training camp for Manny’s fight against Timothy Bradley Jr. As the assistant conditioning trainer, he was tasked with stretching Manny Pacquiao’s body every morning before his sparring session and target mitts training with Roach. Somodio was later flown to the United States to assist Roach and Pacquiao for their training session at the Wild Card gym.

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