Albert Martinez

Early life

He was born as Albert Pineda Martinez in Cebu City on April 19, 1961 to Bert Martinez, a Spanish Mestizo, and Margarita Pineda. He is of Spanish Filipino descent.

Career

Martinez began as a film actor. He took his first teleserye role as Glenn in the 1980 series Anna Liza. Martinez's character, Glenn was the suitor of the titular protagonist, Anna Liza which was portrayed by Julie Vega.

Martinez cites actor John Travolta's acting style as his basis on his own film roles. He describes Travolta as having a tongue-in-cheek style in acting as characterized in his roles in Face/Off, Broken Arrow and Battlefield Earth. Martinez praised Travolta for making his roles "shine" on the aforementioned films despite not portraying "natural characters". He also cited Christopher de Leon as his idol since he started his career in film acting.

In Ikaw Lang Ang Mamahalin he portrays Ferdinand Fuentebuella who marries a woman from a rich family to save the wealth of his own family. On the eve of Martinez's character's wedding, Fuentebuella had a one-night stand with a prostitute (portrayed by Gina Alajar and gets her pregnant. Fuentebuella is reunited with his daughter, Catherine (portrayed by Angelika dela Cruz) five years later but again gets separated from each other. Throughout the series Fuentebuella is determined to reunite again with his daughter as his loveless marriage deteriorates. This role of a sympathetic character was deemed a deviation from Martinez's usual portrayal of hateful characters in films. Commenting on his role after being asked how does he chooses his role, Martinez says that the audience views the characters as role models which they would like to emulate. He says that he tries to incorporate positive values in his role yet he makes sure that the character he portrays remains flawed adding that he is "always looking for a dark twist".

His most recent critically acclaimed role was a downtrodden husband in Magnífico (2003). He recently starred in a TV drama series, Sa Piling Mo, together with Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual which was shown on ABS-CBN. He also worked on the teleserye Maria Flordeluna in 2007 as the role of Gen. Leo Alicante. In 2009–2010, he worked on the teleserye May Bukas Pa, in the role of the antagonist turned protagonist Mayor Enrique Rodrigo. He played the role of Frank Crisanto on the teleserye Kung Tayo'y Magkakalayo alongside Kris Aquino, Kim Chiu, Gina Pareño, Coco Martin, and Gerald Anderson.

He directed his movie Rosario which was shown at the 2010 Metro Manila Film Festival.

He is currently with ABS-CBN as a contract actor.

As Director

Personal life

His father, Bert Martínez, was a character actor during the 1960s. Albert was married to Liezl Sumilang from 1985, until her death in 2015. They had three children, including actor Alfonso Martinez. William Martínez also an actor is his younger brother.