When Monsour del Rosario was young, he was a victim of bullying in school. This was the reason that at age nine, he did not want to continue his studies.
Monsour del Rosario
But earlier, he had been a big fan Bruce Lee and he loved his action films featuring kung-fu. “Idol ko siya, Bruce Lee was my entry into martial arts,” he revealed.
His love and admiration for Bruce was indeed great and this is why behind his desk at his office in Congress, hangs a photo of his idol. In other parts of his office are also photos and figurines of the famous martial artist and action star.
But it was in Taekwondo that Monsour made a name as martial artist. From 1982-1989, he won martial arts competitions and became Lightweight Champion in Taekwondo, was a member of the Philippine team to SE Asian Games. In 1985, he was the second Filipino to win a while world championship (the first was jimmy Martin in 1975, he said). Through Taekwondo masters from Korea, he was encouraged to appear in movies and use Taekwondo in his action stunts. “We want your country and people to know about Taekwondo. You can show your Taekwondo skills on the big screen. We want you to be known as Mr. Taekwondo,”
But Monsour did not have any interest in joining the acting world. It was enough that he became known as martial artist. In the first place, “I was Visayan, I did not know how to speak Tagalog, and I didn't know a thing about acting. But my Korean friends said “you can learn, you have to learn.”
At the height of his popularity as martial artist, Comedy King Dolphy was looking for a new face who is also young to appear in his action-comedy flick “Enteng the Dragon,” which was a spoof of “Enter the Dragon.” One of Dolphy’s staff saw Monsour at the gym and told Dolphy about him.
But it wasn't easy convincing Monsour to enter the movies, even if Ronnie Quizon was a classmate at La Salle and a fellow track and fielder, and Eric Quizon was also a classmate of his sister at Ateneo, Both Eric and Ronnie helped convinced Monsour to accept their father’s offer.
His Korean friend was even more excited for Monsour to be in the movies, to see and find out about his impact on the audience. “We want you to become a household world and your name to be synonymous to Taekwondo.”
Even Mother Lily wanted Monsour to be in a Richard Gomez movie, it was recalled.
“Kumita ng husto ang ‘Enteng the Dragon,’ where I was paired with Dang Cecilio,” Monsour remembered.
His next movie was “Legend of the Lost Dragon” with Chiquito and where Monsour also co-starred with Melissa Mendez and Monica Herrera. In “Eagle Squad,” Monsour co-starred with Jinggoy Estrada, Edu Manzano, ER Ejercito, Julio Diaz and Robin Padilla among others.
“After 8 to 10 years, pumutok na ang pangalan ko as action star. The Korean Taekeondo masters proudly said 'You have arrived, you can stop acting'"