Jun Urbano | |
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| Born | Manuel Salazar Urbano, Jr. June 8, 1939 |
| Died | December 2, 2023 (aged 84) Manila, Philippines |
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Manuel “Jun” Salazar Urbano Jr.[1] (8 June 1939 – 2 December 2023) was a Filipino actor, comedian and director who was best known for his role as Mr. Shooli, a self-styled Mongolian character who specialized in political satire and commentaries on Philippine popular culture.[2][3][4]
Urbano was born on 8 June 1939[5] to film actor, director and producer Manuel Conde (born Manuel Urbano Sr.),[4] who was posthumously recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines for Film and Broadcasting. He grew up as the eldest of nine siblings in Sampaloc, Manila[6] and graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in Journalism.[7] Urbano decided to use his birth surname in his career to avoid being overtly associated with his father's stage name.[6]
Urbano first worked as a reporter for the Manila Times but quit a few weeks into his job after experiencing discomfort while making a report on inmates at the Manila City Jail.[4] He subsequently worked as an advertising director for 35 years,[7] particularly in the late 1970s and early 1980s.[4]
In his advertising career, Urbano was credited with producing more than two thousand TV commercials,[8] These included iconic advertisements for San Miguel Beer such as Isang Platitong Manê with boxer Gabriel Elorde in 1984 that was the subject of a 2009 remake by fellow boxer Manny Pacquiao, Isa pa Nga, Ito ang Beer, and the Christmas commercial Iba ang may Pinagsamahan.[9][10] Urbano also created commercials for other prominent brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Safeguard and Tide.[6] At the same time, he worked with comedians such as Bert Marcelo, the cast of Bad Bananas, Subas Herrero, Noel Trinidad, and Rico J. Puno.[4]
In his 50s,[7] Urbano began portraying a satirical character named Mr. Shooli, a Chinese-accented character who was dressed in a bright red Mongol regal costume and sported a fu manchu moustache,[5] and was known for his comedic takes on Philippine politics and pop culture.[2] This in turn spawned the popular weekly 1980s show Mongolian Barbecue initially broadcast on IBC-13,[11] which won three consecutive Catholic Mass Media Awards[9] and underwent a revival by Golden Nation Network in 2014.[12] The series also spawned several film adaptations and cameos, including a 1991 movie titled Juan Tamad at Mister Shooli: Mongolian Barbecue, which Urbano also directed and wrote,[3] and which also won six awards in that year's Metro Manila Film Festival.[13]
In an interview, Urbano denied that his character was derived from Genghis Khan, which was incidentally the subject of an eponymous 1950 biopic directed by his father, and said that he created Mr. Shooli based on his imitations of Chinese accents by his friends in school[7] and decided to officially describe his character as Mongolian to avoid offending the Chinese Filipino community and after finding that Mongolia had no embassy in the Philippines. His character was initially called Mr. Mongolian until 1985, when during a guesting on Edu Manzano's talk show Not So Late Night With Edu, he was asked by Manzano if he had a formal name, upon which his reply "Surely, surely" was misheard by Manzano to be Shooli.[12]
In his later years, Urbano also hosted programs on YouTube that invited Filipino politicians to engage in discourse with his Mr. Shooli persona. He also appeared as Mr. Shooli at his acceptance of the Gawad Plaridel award from the University of the Philippines, which recognized his character's social commentary and Urbano's work in multimedia commercial advertising, in 2023.[3]
Urbano also appeared in other television shows and films such as Peque Gallaga and Lore Reyes's 1996 fantasy film Magic Temple were he starred as Sifu,[14][4] the 2009 film Litsonero,[15] the 2010 romance film I Do,[16] the 2011 comedy Hostage Ko… Multo,[17] the horror series Midnight DJ[18] and the action series Ang Probinsyano. He also appeared in an ABS-CBN documentary about the movie Ibong Adarna, which was directed by his father in 1941. His last screen appearance was in the 2020 movie Magikland.[8]
Urbano also directed and wrote several films such as a 2014 adaptation of the epic poem Ibong Adarna,[19] Vontes V and M.O.N.A.Y (Misteyks obda neyson adres Yata) ni Mr. Shooli.[3]
Urbano supported the candidacy of Fernando Poe Jr. for the Philippine presidency in the 2004 election and directed Poe's television advertisements for his ultimately unsuccessful campaign.[20][21]
Urbano was married to Victoria and had four sons.[6]
He died from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm on 2 December 2023, at the age of 84.[7][8] He had previously undergone a quintuple heart bypass in 2012 and diagnosed in 2016 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease but continued his entertainment career.[5][22]
| Year | Award-Giving Body | Category | Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences[2] | Dr. Jose R. Perez Memorial Award | |
| 2023 | University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication[2] | Gawad Plaridel |