100th YEAR – Philippine Cinema celebrates its 100th year in 2019. The count started with the release in 1918 of the first all-Filipino produced movie, Jose Nepomuceno’s “Dalagang Bukid,” starring Atang de la Rama.
Highspeed suggests honoring durable stars, calling them “Centennial Stars.”
The names that right away come to mind are those of Gloria Romero and Eddie Garcia, still active to this very day. Glo is 85 and Eddie 89.
They topbill one of the entries to the ongoing Metro Manila Film Festival, “Rainbow’s Sunset.”
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MORE THAN – Gloria and Eddie are more than award-winning actors.
Glo was also a beauty queen and the signature model of the country’s greatest designer, National Artist Ramon Valera. She also played the Blessed Mother in passion plays in the ‘50s. She is the most regal of all movie queens.
Eddie is an award-winning and blockbuster director, behind such classics as “Atsay,” and “Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-ibig.”
In the ‘50s up to early ‘60s, Glo and Eddie were contemporaries at Sampaguita Pictures.
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SENIOR STARS – Needless to say, there are other senior stars who may well be cited to mark the centennial of local movies.
They include Anita Linda, Ramon Revilla, Mila del Sol, Mona Lisa, Delia Razon, Naty Santiago, Lilia Dizon, Robert Arevalo, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Sevilla, Caridad Sanchez, Barbara Perez – all in their 80s or 90s.
In their 70s are Susan Roces, Dante Rivero, Amalia Fuentes, Ronaldo Valdez, Tommy Abuel, Nick Lizaso, Luz Valdez, Marita Zobel, Perla Bautista, Pepito Rodriguez, Leo Martinez, Eddie Gutierrez, Pilita Corrales, Boots Anson-Roa Rodrigo, Gloria Diaz, Lollie Mara, Roger Calvin, Josephine Estrada, Romeo Rivera, Divina Valencia, Stella Suarez, Gina Pareño, Rosemarie Sonora, Ariel Ureta.
No, Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos are only in their 60s. Ditto Phillip Salvador, Tirso Cruz III, and Christopher de Leon.