Nora Aunor, Singer-Actress Called ‘the Superstar' in Philippines, Dies at 71
Nora Aunor, a powerful Filipina actress and singer who for nearly 60 years captivated audiences — her devoted fans were called Noranians — earning the nickname 'the Superstar,' died on April 16 in the city of Pasig, near Manila. She was 71.
Her death, in a hospital, was announced by her family. The cause was acute respiratory failure after an angioplasty, according to news media reports.
'Over the decades, she built a career that shaped the very soul of our culture,' her son Ian de Leon said at a news conference.
Ms. Aunor was known widely for her petite stature, expressive eyes, which could convey a breadth of emotions, and a somewhat darker skin than was commonplace in Filipino show business when she was starting out.
Movie stars in the country then were 'usually mixed race, with prominent Spanish or Caucasian and American looks, some of whom were children of American G.I.s,' said José B. Capino, the author of 'Martial Law Melodrama' (2020), about the visionary Filipino director Lino Brocka.
Ms. Aunor's movie career began in the 1960s with teeny-bopper films and romcoms but graduated to serious fare like 'Bona,' a 1980 drama directed by Mr. Brocka in which she portrayed the title character, a middle-class teenager obsessed with a handsome, narcissistic bit player in movies.
Bona leaves home to move into the man's shabby flat and essentially become his maid, attending to his whims while enduring his womanizing. When he tells her to move out, she gets her revenge.
'The chilling ferocity, vulnerability and abandon exuded by Aunor's performance is so indelibly inscribed on Bona's face that she haunts every scene,' Andréa Picard, a senior curator at the Toronto International Film Festival, wrote in 2024, when a restored version of 'Bona' was screened by the organization. The film had been shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1981 and was declared a Cannes Classic in 2024.
Ms. Aunor's portrayal of Bona earned her a FAMAS Award, the Filipino equivalent of an Oscar, for best actress. She won four others, also for best actress, and received a lifetime achievement award from the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Science in 2011.
To convey the extent of Ms. Aunor's popularity, Mr. Brocka recalled a scene outside the lobby after the premiere of another film they had made together, 'You Are the Mother of Your Daughter' (1979).
'People were unruly,' he was quoted as saying on the Filipino film critic Noel Vera's blog in 2024. 'Her car was being bumped by the crowd. All she did was put a finger on her lips and raise her right hand, and it was like the parting of the Red Sea. You could hear a pin drop.' (Mr. Brocka died in a car accident in 1991 at 52.)
Ms. Aunor's more than 200 screen credits include roles as a midwife in 'Thy Womb' (2012); a World War II revolutionary in 'Three Years Without God' (1976); a pregnant woman incarcerated for murder in 'The Flowers of the City Jail' (1984); and a Filipina domestic worker who is hanged in Singapore for the murder of another maid and the child she was caring for in 'The Flor Contemplacion Story' (1995), which was based on a true story.
Emanuel Levy, in his review of 'The Flor Contemplacion Story' in Variety, wrote, 'Aunor invests her role with powerful emotions and utmost conviction, showing how a humble, self-sacrificing mother became a victim of corruption and abuse — and later, a national symbol adored by her countrymen.'
For her portrayal of Ms. Contemplacion, Ms. Aunor won the best actress award from the Cairo International Film Festival.
In 2024, the Metrograph, an art-house theater on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, held a mini-restrospective of Ms. Aunor's work, showing 'Bona' and Once a Moth' (1976), in which she starred as a nurse whose plan to emigrate to the United States ends after her brother is shot to death by an American soldier.
'She had a great screen presence,' Inge de Leeuw, the theater's director of programming, said in an interview. 'Her roles were humane, and she had a lot of heart in how she portrayed different people.'
Nora Cabaltera Villamayor was born on May 21, 1953, in Iriga, in the province of Camarines Sur, to Antonio Cabaltera, a porter, and Eustacio Villamayor. To help her poor family, Nora sold water at the railroad station where her father worked. By the sixth grade, she had become a fan of Timi Yuro, a soulful American singer who was popular in the Philippines, and sang almost all the time, Nick Joaquin, a well-known Filipino journalist, wrote in 1970 in the Philippines Free Press, a weekly magazine.
Between ages 12 and 14, Nora won amateur singing contests, bringing her record and movie contracts. (She took her professional surname from an aunt.)
'Her influences ranged from Streisand to Nancy Wilson,' Mr. Joaquin wrote, 'but a Nora style was developing. Whether belting out a hot number or crooning a kundiman' — a traditional Filipino love song — 'the Aunor voice is defined by a certain huskiness of tone, quite remarkable in so young a girl.'
Her voice was heard on hundreds of singles and albums, on her long-running variety show and in concerts until one of her vocal cords was damaged during a botched cosmetic surgery in 2010. Her repertoire included English-language covers of songs like 'People,' 'Moon River' and 'Pearly Shells,' a 1971 release that reportedly sold more than one million units, as well as many ballads sung in Filipino.
'Personally, in my heart, I really like music,' she told The Jersey Journal in 2000 when she performed at Newark Symphony Hall. 'Acting is one part of me which satisfies me, too. It fulfills me. Maybe it's a combination of both.'
She added: 'I can't let go of one and be partial to the other one.'
Her career hit a detour in 2005, when she was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport, accused of possessing eight grams of methamphetamine and a glass pipe in her carry-on bag. She pleaded guilty to drug possession and entered a county drug program; after three months, she was allowed to travel for concerts.
Later that year, Noranians held a celebration of Ms. Aunor's 39th year in show business in Quezon City in the Philippines, and the city of Killeen, Texas, which has a significant Filipino population, held a day in her honor.
'You have truly made a difference in all our lives,' Tim Hancock, Killeen's mayor, told Ms. Aunor at the event.
In addition to her son Ian, her survivors include her four other children, Lotlot, Kiko and Kenneth de Leon and Matet de Leon-Estrada. Her marriage to Christopher de Leon ended in divorce.
Although in declining health, Ms. Aunor continued to work in the Philippines through last year, in the horror film 'Mananambal,' as a traditional healer, and in a recurring role in the TV series 'Lilet Matias: Attorney-at-Law.'
Martin Escudero, who worked with Ms. Aunor in 'Mananambal,' told The Manila Standard this year that her acting had a positive effect on others in the cast.
When he acted opposite her, he said, 'you don't have to force anything. With just a look from Ms. Nora, you feel her presence, and that makes you act naturally.'
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