*126. GRACITA DOMINGUEZ: Dolphy's Dearest

GRACITA AS GLO-CO BEAUTY. Actress Gracita Dominguez, of Mabalacat, models for Glo-Co Hollywood soap print ad. From a Sunday Times Magazine tearsheet, 1953.

Gracita Dominguez (b. 193?/d. 2007) comes from an old-time family from Mabalacat which counts a hero (Lt. Emilio Dominguez, a Katipunero) among its members. She, too, was launched as a new heroine of Philippine movies by no less than a noted director—“bagong tuklas ni Manuel Conde”. Conde had produced and starred in the 1950 epic, “Genghis Khan” which took Venice Film festival by storm two years later. 

Previous to this, Gracita had done stage and bod-a-bil (vaudeville) shows occasionally, and so it was really hitting the big time when she was introduced in “Siete Infantes de Lara”, a costume movie written by Carlos “Botong” Francisco. Our future National Artist was then working as an illustrator for popular comic books. The stars were Eddie Garcia, Mario Montenegro, Johnny Monteiro among others, while the female leads were Luningning and Africa de la Rosa. Gracita had to be content with a supporting role. 

 A year later, the young ingenue was launched to full stardom, in Fortune Productions Hiwaga ng Langit (Mystery of Heaven) and in 1952, appeared in Carlos Vander Tolosa’s Kalbaryo ni Hesus (Passion of Christ), which featured an American actor, Jennings Sturgeon, as Jesus Christ. Despite these films, Gracita did not quite make the A-List of bankable movie actresses. 

She continued appearing in occasional stage and opera shows and this is where she met Rodolfo Quizon—Dolphy, today's King of Philippine Comedy. Despite opposition from Gracita's parents, she became Dolphy’s partner and when the kids came along—6 in all: Manny, Freddie, Rodolfo Jr., Edgar, Sahlee and Rollie—she decided to quit showbiz altogether to devote her time raising a family, while Dolphy worked abroad as a comedian-performer in Hong Kong. 

 All six of the Quizon children entered showbiz, and three met with varying degrees of success. Thus, what Gracita failed to accomplish, Manny, Salud (Sahlee) and Rollie did. Manny became the manager of his father’s RVQ Productions and did notable films like “Sino si Boy Urbino” and Andalucia. Convent-bred Sahlee dabbled in showbiz in the 1970s, appearing in song-and-dance teen flicks, but found business success in the U.S. West Coast as distributor of Philippine films. Gracita’s youngest son, Rollie, won the 3rd Metro Manila Filmfest Best Actor Award for the film “Burlesk Queen” opposite Vilma Santos. He was most well known as Dolphy’s son in the long-running TV sitcom “John and Marsha”.

Gracita and Dolphy separated in 1963. They, however, remained in good terms for the rest of her life. She passed away in 2007 after a long illness. 

  (*NOTE: Feature titles with asterisks represent other writings of the author that appeared in other publications and are not included in the original book, "Views from the Pampang & Other Scenes")