A leading lady named Lolita

2016 may be remembered by many as one of the best years Philippine cinema has enjoyed, but it’s also a particularly cruel one for the industry, as it saw several entertainers pass on. The latest is retired actress Lolita Rodriguez, who died in Hemet, California, on November 28, two months after she suffered a stroke. She was 81. 

Born Lolita Maiquez Clark to an American father and Filipino mother on January 29, 1935, Rodriguez was—is—acclaimed as one of the country’s finest actresses. She was held in very high regard by her peers, including the Superstar herself, Nora Aunor, who, I remember, said in an interview with lawyer and television host Ricardo “Dong” Puno years ago that Rodriguez was the performer she admired most.

It’s easy to understand why she’s so celebrated. It’s apparent in the various testimonials on her professionalism and the many movies she made throughout her illustrious career, which started in 1953 with Sampaguita Pictures’ Pancho Magalona-Tita Duran starrer Ang Ating Pag-ibig (Our Love) and reached an early high point when she won the Famas (Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences) award for best actress for the 1958 drama Gilda. That film also starred Eddie Arenas, whom she married, had three children with, and later divorced.

Rodriguez had demonstrated her versatility in comedies, among them the original Bondying (1954) and Jack en Jill (1955); action flicks, including Kilabot ng Makiling (The Terror of Mount Makiling) (1958); and dramas, such as Sapagkat Kami’y Tao Lamang (Because We’re Only Human) (1963), Iginuhit sa Buhangin (Drawn in the Sand) (1965), and Kapag Puso’y Sinugatan… (When the Heart is Wounded…) (1967), the last three she co-starred with the late Eddie Rodriguez and Marlene Dauden. Together, they formed an onscreen love triangle that endured throughout the 1960s.

But many Filipino film buffs, including myself, will remember her for her work in the 1970s and beyond, specifically her collaborations with the late National Artist for Film Lino Brocka. Their professional partnership began with the landmark 1970 film Tubog sa Ginto (Dipped in Gold), in which she played the wife of a closeted gay man, played by Eddie Garcia; arguably reached its peak in the acclaimed 1974 drama Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (Weighed But Found Wanting); and continued with Ina, Kapatid, Anak (Mother, Sister, Daughter) and Ina Ka ng Anak Mo (You are the Mother of Your Daughter), the latter co-starring Aunor as her barren and betrayed daughter.

Of all of Rodriguez’s roles, it’s her Famas award-winning turn as the village lunatic Kuala in Tinimbang that people will remember her for. As far as I’m concerned, that role best represents what kind of an actress she was. Performers with less sensitivity, sensibility, and talent would have acted the hell out of that showy part, but not her. What’s so memorable about her performance as a woman driven to madness after undergoing an abortion is the fierce intelligence and, more notably, restraint she brought to the part.

Many have noted Rodriguez’s ability to convey emotions through her eyes, and she certainly did that with Kuala (and the other roles she essayed). She didn’t take the easy and lazy route, so to speak. She’s a master at underacting. She truly understood—knew—that woman. It’s really a performance for the ages.

Much as I’m saddened by Rodriguez’s death, I’m grateful that she left a substantial body of work for filmgoers like myself to enjoy for years to come. I’m also grateful that, before she retired from showbusiness in the late 1970s (briefly broken by her starring roles in Celso Ad. Castillo’s Paradise Inn in 1985 and Mel Chionglo’s Lucia in 1992), she imparted valuable acting lessons that today’s young performers should benefit from, especially if they’re serious about their craft.

With her death, I hope that more of her movies, especially those made early in her career, would be restored and archived, so that future generations of directors and moviegoers can watch them. This is wishful thinking, of course, but who knows?

Rest well, and thank you, Lolita Rodriguez, luminous leading lady of Philippine cinema.