Who was your obscure adolescent crush?
Edward Woodward and William Zabka in the TV series The Equalizer. Photo from Eccentric Cinema.
The best way to spend a mid-week holiday is to meet your friends for a long brunch full of wonderfully pointless conversation. That’s how this topic came up. Answers included Ferdie Marcelo of Beach House, Domingo Sabado of Temptation Island, and Lawrence Pineda who is our friend’s brother.
Ours was William Zabka, who played the son of The Equalizer. Not so obscure—he went on to play the bad guy in the first Karate Kid—but not a big star, either. (Another one: Michael Biehn, the hero in Terminator and bad guy in The Abyss.)
We used to watch The Equalizer every week. It was set in scary 80s New York City and starred Edward Woodward as a retired CIA operative who helped people in trouble. The series had an excellent musical score by Stewart Copeland of The Police (whose father was in the CIA, hence the name of the band fronted by Sting).
A movie version of The Equalizer is underway, starring Denzel Washington. Ummm…no. Denzel’s brilliant, but The Equalizer was a heavyset man in late middle age, with a British accent. Every time he had to run after a perp he would lose his breath and shout, “Stop!” And his voice was so commanding, the perp would stop.
And yours was…?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 13th, 2013 at 10:51
Julian Lennon, in his video for Because: long hair, dangling earring, piano, that voice, that look. (at na-LSS nako, title pa lang)
June 13th, 2013 at 11:01
Martin Shaw who starred with Lewis Collins and Gordon Jackson in “The Professionals,” a British crime/action/drama TV series about the fictional CI5 (a more aggressive version of the real life MI5). Martin Shaw had a set of such curly locks on his head he looked like he was wearing a wig, but no matter, he was abrasive where Collins was cool, edgy where Collins was laid back. They were like champagne (Collins) and beer, vanilla (Collins) and chocolate, linen trousers and blue jeans. I always ran the risk of getting spanked whenever that show was on because it was on a weeknight and we weren’t allowed to have any television viewing during the week because there was school, but I managed to avoid several spankings. I saw photos of Martin Shaw as he looks today and well, he wasn’t the cocky, badass Brit from West End anymore…he looked really OLD! :(
June 13th, 2013 at 11:12
Locally, Ricky Liboro from Kada and Sarji Ruiz from Ang TV. From Hollywood: Will Friedle and Dermot Mulroney.
Ah, Lawrence Pineda… Crushable nga siya sa commercial ng San Miguel Beer!
June 13th, 2013 at 12:42
silentfollower: Dermot Mulroney is not obscure! Just gets confused with Dylan McDermott. Mmmmm Dylan McDermott.
June 13th, 2013 at 13:38
Ooops. Me thought he was because when my yearbook write-up read “Plans to marry Dermot Mulroney” my classmates asked, “Dermot Mulroney who?”
Another obscure crushee: Hiroyuki Ikeuchi from Ip Man. I am still an adolescent. I refuse to grow up.
June 13th, 2013 at 13:39
My pre-adolescent self was in love with Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet. It started with the video for “True” (cue LSS here) and continued with “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (where he sang third voice next to Boy George and Sting). Imagine my plotzing when he showed up in the video for “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss.”
Then it was Max Casella, who played Doogie Howser’s friend Vinnie. I didn’t care if he was already 30-something when he was shooting the show (may growth disorder daw ang kuya) but he just stood out to me more than the teenaged NPH ever did. Last time I heard, he was one of the onstage puppeteers from the Broadway production of “Lion King.”
June 13th, 2013 at 13:49
Is Ricky Shroeder of Silver Spoons obscure enough? My first celebrity crush!!
Yung sa BJ and the Bear? He still appears on TV; older but still really cute.
Sorry Denzel. The Equalizer will always be Edward Woodward.
June 13th, 2013 at 16:36
I had a crush on Madeleine Stowe, circa 12 Monkeys. Not so obscure I guess, but I felt like I was the only one among my friends who knew of her. I watched 12 Monkeys three times at the cinema :D
June 13th, 2013 at 16:52
neil patrick harris of doogie howser m.d. and patrick dempsey
June 13th, 2013 at 19:36
marcus: Obscure. Adjective. Not well known.
June 13th, 2013 at 19:39
stellalehua: We saw a recent Tony Hadley video. He looks like k.d. lang now. Mas pogi lang si k.d.
Vinnie turns up in various HBO shows. The Sopranos for one.
June 13th, 2013 at 20:03
OMG Billy Zabka was so hot nung nakokonsensya siyang i-‘sweep the leg, johnny!’ si Karate Kid!
My adolescent obscure crush…when I was 15 patay na patay ako kay Daniel Johns of the teen-rock band Silverchair. Tapos naging anorexic si kuya at kinasal kay Natalie Imbruglia.
One summer I kept on renting the National Lampoon Senior Trip VHS because I had the biggest crush on the (then) obscure stoner bida. I only found out recently he grew up to be Jeremy Renner! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjVp8KKxNFg
June 13th, 2013 at 22:21
Nicholas Brendon who played Xander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I remember he and his twin brother were in one episode.
And another guy (from a TV series) who could have been in his 40s! My friend teased me to no end. I remember ‘fessing up my undying devotion only to regret it later on hehe.
June 13th, 2013 at 22:34
obscure ba si Glenn Medeiros? i googled him and found out he has a wikipedia page. he’s not so obscure, i guess. i was in fifth grade when his single “She Ain’t Worth It” came out. paborito ko yung music video (wala pang MTV nun, hehehe) nya sa song na yun.
tsaka pala si Jose Marie Gonzales, yung tatay ni Kristina Gonzales. :)
June 14th, 2013 at 00:53
Nicole Eggert from Baywatch. Googling old photos. Bye!
June 14th, 2013 at 02:20
Wow, your The Equalizer experience mirrors mine, down to the appointment TV status of Thursday nights, weekly fingers-crossed anticipation that it was going to be a “Scott” or a “Mickey Kosmeyer” episode (obscure crush alert on Keith Szarabajka!) and my still-existing attraction for Stewart Copeland. (Stewart is still HOTT. Two “T’s”)
My Obscure Crush Pantheon also included Jim Metzler (so endearingly terrific as Matt Dillon’s older brother in “Tex”) — he later appeared as a stooge-ish sort in the Civil War miniseries “North & South,” which starred Obscure Crush James Read. My “Remington Steele” viewing ended when Murphy Michaels left the show!
June 14th, 2013 at 04:59
speaking of William Zabka, did you know that he was in NPH’s How I Met Your Mother show recently? is the show even available in pinas? NPH is hilarious and that episode is quite funny. here’s a clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbdodKb_BVo
obscure crush: Adrian Zmed from TJ Hooker.
local obscure crush: Brent something from a Citibank commercial in pinas. i remember squealing every time that commercial was on. i also remember the line “and parking, that’s another problem”.
June 14th, 2013 at 08:13
that guy who looked like Terence Stamp and danced with Lito Calzado
June 14th, 2013 at 10:43
for me it was (still is) Mariam D’Abo of the James Bond flick The Living Daylights. I think it was the only JB movie where the leading lady did not stip naked?
Ohhh the short hair, petite brunette…
June 14th, 2013 at 13:16
sunflowii: Brent Javier. Kapitbahay.
June 14th, 2013 at 20:28
kapitbahaayyyyyy? *squeal*
so many questions but i think i’d rather not know the answers. :)
June 14th, 2013 at 21:22
Local: Nikka Valencia, yung taga Star Circle na parang young Daria Ramirez.
Foreign (di masyado obscure): Justine Frischmann ng Elastica tsaka si Trini Alvarado (The Frighteners).
@sunflowii: Adrian Zmed? Haha, ayaw mo kay Denny Terio? I think that guy with parking problems in the Citibank commercial is not called Brent. His name is Joshua Spafford.
This guy?:http://www.philstar.com/entertainment/2012-12-29/891046/return-native
June 14th, 2013 at 21:43
Super hot daddy crush David Morse (Green Mile)
June 15th, 2013 at 06:51
@misterluspo – oo nga!!!! joshua spafford! now that name rings a bell (and no, i wouldn’t have recognized him in that pic) but yup, that’s the one. i kept thinking that i remember he went to an international school in manila that starts with B. brent school yon. asus!
so sabi ko kay jessica i have so many questions but i’d rather not know the answers. weeeell, eh di ginoogle ko rin kanina dahil hindi ako makatiis. brent javier. hmmm he looks too young to have been in that commercial from almost 2 decades ago. and javier doesn’t ring a bell. yun pala. mali. haha
Denny Terio? sino yon? ginoogle ko rin. aahhh. nooo.
June 15th, 2013 at 15:28
Crush: John D. LeMay (Friday the 13th the series)
In 2009 we were scheduled to watch a play in Hampshire starring Edward Woodward and his wife. He fell down the stairs so it was postponed. They never got to reschedule. He died, from various illnesses, a few months later :-(
June 15th, 2013 at 19:31
I had a crush on Marc Singer who starred in the ’80s original tv series “V”. However, my biggest crush back in the day, although he’s not obscure, was Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. fame.
June 15th, 2013 at 22:46
Remington Steele aka Pierce Brosnan
June 21st, 2013 at 04:43
Nicky Byrne of Westlife. Yes, I know. Start throwing things at me now.
June 21st, 2013 at 04:45
… although I was actually in college already at that time, so I guess that’s not adolescent.
If I go back to adolescence… Leo DiCaprio when he was still obscure. Pre-Titanic and R&J, he was this character actor who had an oscar nom for Gilbert Grape but otherwise was not that well-known. Does that count? I can’t recall my adolescent crushes. Gahd, memory gap.