Mario Montenegro (born Roger Collin Macalalag; July 25, 1928 – August 27, 1988) was a Filipino film actor best known for his heroic leading roles.

Biography

Montenegro was born in Pagsanjan, Laguna to a Filipino father and a French mother.

Montenegro was a student at the University of the Philippines upon the invasion of the Philippines by Japan during World War II. At the age of fourteen, he joined the armed resistance against the Imperial Japanese Army as a member of the Hunters ROTC guerilla unit and later joining the group of stronghold soldiers under the Philippine Commonwealth Army during the Southern Luzon Campaign. He was only sixteen when he, along with the Hunters ROTC, participated in the famed raid on the Japanese internment camp at Los Baños, Laguna on February 23, 1945. He received multiple medals for distinction before he rejoined civilian life in 1946.