Leverage and Fil-am Celebrities in Hollywood Part 1

Dear insansapinas,
I am watching the DVDs given to me as Christmas gift by my brother. It is Ellery Queen Mysteries. The CSI, Law and Order, NCIS, Hawaii Five O (the new one) enthusiasts (me, included) may not have heard of the mystery series which were shown in mid 70's. I must have watched the original Hawaii Five O during those years just to appreciate the tsunami-like waves and to listen to the theme music but never understood the storylines. Besides, my eldest brother was the one holding the TV control (no remote yet).


One thing I discovered was that the actor who portrayed the sleuth/mystery writer was JIM HUTTON, the father of TIMOTHY HUTTON, 

also an actor and is the main character in the action packed LEVERAGE a TV series about Robin Hoods of the modern times, Jim Hutton died of liver cancer at the age of 44.


Naaah, Timothy Hutton is not a Fil-am. It is the producer/director of LEVERAGE, DEAN DEVLIN who is.

Dean Devlin who ? He was the producer of INDEPENDENCE DAY, remember? Other movies which screenplays he wrote were the STARGATE, GODZILLA and Universal Soldier.


It was his mother, Rita Hernandez  who was a Filipino. She was an actress too whose screen name was Pilar Seurat. She appeared in the movie. The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

When she died in 2001 of lung cancer, Dean dedicated one movie for her.

Tia Carrere

Remember her in TRUE LIES with Arnold Schwarzenegger,Jamie Lee Curtis; in the Rising Sun with Wesley Snipes and Sean Connery; Wayne's World and Relic Hunter.Tia Carrere is a Fil-am who is not only an actress but also a singer.

Phoebe Cates

There was a movie that I watched in the cable entitled Drop Dead, Fred which was about a very playful imaginary friend of a girl who stayed on even when she had her own kid. The girl grew up to be  Phoebe Cates. 


Then there was another movie where she was tagged as  Caraboo Princess who worked as the mysterious nanny to British families. She was dressed like a Filipino Muslim princess and she was talking in a gibberish language. That was a comedy of course. The lead actor was Kevin Kline who happened to become her husband. I did not know why she was said to be of Filipino descent.

Cates was born Phoebe Belle Cates in New York City, to a family of TV and Broadway production insiders. Her father, Joseph Cates (originally Katz), was a major Broadway producer and a pioneering figure in television, who helped create The $64,000 Question. Her uncle Gilbert Cates produced numerous TV specials, often in partnership with Cates' father, and several annual Academy Awards shows. Her maternal grandfather was of Filipino descent, and her father as well as her maternal grandmother were of Russian Jewish origin.

She's married to another actor, Kevin Kline. She retired from acting to raise her children away from Hollywood.

Pinaysaamerika