Career
Belmonte was born as Jesse Cruz on December 24, 1947 in Tondo, Manila. His screen surname was taken from the Belmontes, STAR magazine publishers who, in the 1960s, used to publish several movie magazines like Movie World, Movie Land, Movie Star, among others He died on October 3, 2001 in a hospital in Parañaque City, four days after cerebral hemorrhage caused by a massive stroke, he was 54.