Marissa a sexy sexagenarian

MANILA, Philippines – Marissa Delgado, still a sexy sexagenarian, has done over 200 films, two of which won for her FAMAS Best Supporting Actress awards —  Lino Brocka’s  Lumuha Pati Mga Anghel (1971) and Ishmael Bernal’s Till Death Do Us Part (1972).

“FAMAS is fair. It was my first time to be nominated then and I did not expect to win,” said Marissa in an interview at her residence in Muntinlupa City one sunny afternoon.

In 1977, she was nominated for Gawad Urian Award for Ligaw Na Bulaklak and FAMAS Award’s Best Supporting Actress for Sa Akin Pa Rin Ang Bukas in 1988.

Interestingly, her first film was a comic one, starring Dolphy and Chiquito in the lead roles.

“I was only 16 years old at that time. It was my (maternal) late grandparents, Remedios and Peter, who gave me moral support for my dream to be an actress,” she fondly reminisced. Marissa was then a bubbly high school student at FEU in Morayta, Manila. 

She added, “I couldn’t forget that movie, Dalawang Kumander sa WAC (produced by GM Productions and directed by Artemio Marquez in 1966). Chiquito was talkative on the set while Dolphy was very quiet. The duo fondly called me Panyang.”

Her first international exposure came in 1972 when she played the role of Rina in the film The Big Bird Cage, directed by Jack Hill and starred Americans Pam Grier, Sid Haig, Anitra Ford and Carol Speed, and Filipinos Vic Diaz and Zenaida Amador.

In the ‘80s, she appeared on GMA 7’s  soap Anna Liza and sitcom Duplex. It was followed by ABS-CBN’s Wag Kukurap, Kampanerang Kuba, Maging Sino Ka Man, Hiram Na Mukha and Be Careful with My Heart as well as in the Kapuso Network’s Kamandag, Ful Haus, Ikaw Sana, Panday Kids, Bantatay, Blusang Itim and Luna Blanca.

In 2009, she was a narrator in the docu-drama film, Isang Lahi: Pearls from the Orient, aired on ABS-CBN as a special TV cut feature that became a relief for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.

Marissa is now being seen on ABS-CBN’s primetime teleserye Forevermore and on GMA 7’s  morning teleserye Bantatay, Ang Pagbabalik.

She admitted that she is an avid fan of Gloria Romero, Susan Roces and Rosemarie Sonora, and she is too happy that she has met them in person.

Her closest friends in show business are Be Careful with My Heart colleague Divina Valencia, Imelda Ilanan, Dexter Doria and Liza Lorena. “We’ve Balik-Samahan, a fellowship of old actors and actresses. We meet once every three months and this is organized by Pempe Rodrigo (daughter of the late Sen. Soc Rodrigo) who was once the secretary of Doc Perez. We have also recollections, retreats, charity works. We have seed money to help fellow actors and actresses.”

Young Marissa in her Big Bird Cage film

Moreover, Marissa said she is at home with today’s young generation of actors and appreciates them for “they are also professional and focused, and they know how to manage their finances.”

As to her piece of advice to them, she said, “Love your work. It has to come from the heart and it must be your passion. But having a relationship is a sabotage sometimes to the good things going on in your life. Certainly, you have to choose, whether to get married or to continue to act... Life is too short to be bitter. Bitterness is suffering… And I believe in endless praying.” 

She herself got married when she was a new star, and later became a working mother for her two smart kids (one became a beauty queen and the other an actor, and both are products of De La Salle University-Manila).

“My kids accompanied me during tapings then,” she candidly recalled.

In her spare time, the ace actress reads a lot of inspirational books like biographies. She keeps attending acting workshops to “update ourselves.” 

“I am still learning, and life is a continuous learning,” she said.

She also loves to be with her grandchildren and close relatives and her house is like fiesta when they are around, especially this Christmas, while she manages to attend to her flourishing training center business that she put up some years ago.

But she has her other dreams she hopes to be realized.

“I hope to do a very good indie film and to be a writer in the near future,” she said.