FAMOUS FILIPINOS / ASIANS

Nicole Bilderback

Bring It On 2 DVD was released yesterday, but we are paying homage to the original movie whose cast includes Korean born Nicole Bilderback.  Nicole’s character, Whitney, was one of the main cheerleaders on the team with Torrance, played by Kirsten Dunst.

Born June 10, 1975 in Korea and raised in Tulsa, OK by her adoptive parents, Jim and Lois Bilderback, Nicole is also well known for her role as Summer in Clueless (1995), her recurring roles on television’s Dark Angel, Dawson’s Creek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Nicole has also starred in hit shows as The Practice, Heroes, Without a Trace, House MD and Boston Legal.

[photo sources: 1, 2, 3]

Roman Gabriel, born Roman Ildonzo Gabriel, Jr. is the son of a Filipino immigrant.  (Filipino American on his father’s side and Irish-American on his mother’s.)

He was the first Asian-American to start as an NFL quarterback and is considered by many to have been one of the best players at that position during the late 1960s and early 70s.

Born August 5, 1940 in Wilmington, North Carolina, Gabriel QB’d with the Oakland Raiders, St. Louis Rams, and the Philly Eagles, to name a few.  At 6’4” and 235 pounds, he is considered the first truly big quarterback of the modern era.

• 1973 -NFL Comeback Player of the Year
• 1969- NFL Most Valuable Player Award, AP, UPI, NEA, and the Bert Bell MVP Trophy (Maxwell Club)
• 1968 - Pro Bowl MVP

He was also a two-time All-American, and a two-time Two-time ACC Player of the Year (1960-61) he starred at quarterback for North Carolina State University in the early 1960s and finished his career holding virtually every Wolfpack passing record. An academic All-American, Gabriel saw his jersey retired and presented to him by North Carolina governor Terry Sanford on Jan. 20, 1962, at half-time of an NC State-Maryland basketball game in Reynolds Coliseum.

Gabriel later had acting roles in movies and television and became a tv and radio sports commentator.

Victoria Recaño is half-Filipino and an Emmy Award-winning American television personality, best known for being a correspondent on such programs as The Insider and Inside Edition.

Recaño was born in St. Louis, Missouri, one of six children. Her father was a Filipino-Spanish mestizo^[1] having emigrated to the United States to pursue a career in medicine. Her mother was German-Hungarian.