TELEVISION leading man Wendell Ramos started his career in show business almost the same time we started ours as a newspaper journalist. It was in the mid-1990s when we met him through our dear common friend, the late and much loved Douglas Quijano, who also served as Ramos’s manager for a very long time.
We recall Ramos telling us that he was both excited and nervous when he was about to start appearing on the popular GMA gag show Bubble Gang. He blended in right away with his costars which eventually led him to be cast as one of the actors that were groomed as future matinee idols in the teenage series Click.
He continued to explore the different facets of the acting business after the millennium, as technology and science advanced further. We would see him in different movie genres, shifting from drama to romantic comedy to action with the ease and commitment he would also give to television.
In 2004, Ramos accepted an offer to do a Joel Lamangan movie that would pair him with the then young superstar Judy Ann Santos, who played the titular role in Sabel. Ramos gave a very calm and collected performance that merited him a difficult-to-win Urian best supporting actor trophy, much to his surprise.
We remember talking to him about it in a private get-together a few weeks after his big win, and he told us that he was already OK with the nomination, knowing how exacting the process of the Manunuri members is in choosing their nominees, and how tough the competition was that year in his category.
As years passed, Ramos also continued to take care of his physical gifts and even up to this day, people would remember his derring-do in several of those unforgettable Bench underwear fashion shows where Ramos would effortlessly steal the thunder from bigger names just by strutting his stuff on stage.
He was,and has always been comfortable by being himself in choosing the kind of roles he wants to portray on the different platforms of entertainment. A person of much introspection, Ramos is known to be a man of few words, consistently replying to questions from the press with both sincere and straight-forward short answers.
He was also very respectful to the women who were rumored to be in romantic liaisons with him, often just flashing his signature impish smile to the nosy media when ambushed to confirm or deny the issues at hand.
Now fast-forward to almost 25 years later, Ramos is still very much active in the acting business. He can work for any network that will offer him juicy roles, and he is still know to be a team player to this day.
Technically, Ramos is the main lead actor in the new GMA drama series Prima Donnas, which serves as the launching pad of three teenage actresses. He is cast as the father of these girls as they face the tides and trials of growing up. Esteemed actress Gina Alajar directs this new show for the network’s afternoon prime-time slot.
“I am very fortunate that work comes in regularly for me,” he shared, adding, “I am one of the few who can work comfortably in all the major networks that engage in healthy, happy competition. I try to balance work and my personal life, knowing that I should make time for my family because they always should come first.”
Ramos turned 41 recently and he told us that he has a lot to be thankful for. “I am in that phase when I can choose the work that I want. I guess it is something that actors can achieve after years of working hard, and being passionate and professional about the kind of work output you give. My goal is simply to live comfortably, and to provide my family with a good life. I think I have been in my ‘happy place’ for a few years now, and I look forward to being in this state for many more years to come.”