One last look at Oscar and Cesar

Local show business is still mourning the death of three veteran actors — all from Sampaguita Pictures — who died in close succession last week: Oscar Moreno, Cesar Ramirez and Vic Vargas.

I already paid tribute to Vic Vargas in my last column. Below, let us remember Oscar Moreno and Cesar Ramirez and their contributions to Philippine cinema.

Oscar Moreno

Although today’s generation is more familiar with his showbiz children, Boots Anson-Roa and Alvin Anson, Oscar Moreno was one of the top leading men of his time.

Born Oscar Gamboa Anson in Camalig, Albay on Oct. 25, 1921, he was a product of the State University like his daughter, Boots. Oscar didn’t really have plans of becoming an actor. But when he accompanied a friend to a Sampaguita screen test one day, the studio bosses asked him to give the movies a try himself. As fate would have it, he was the one who passed the screen test and not his friend.

Initially, he played a supporting role in Guerilyera, a 1946 war movie starring Carmen Rosales. The following year, when his home studio felt he was already ripe for lead roles, he was cast opposite former child star Tita Duran, who was then being launched as a young adult in Unang Pag-ibig.

The other significant films he made during his career in the movies were Baguio Cadets, Objective: Patayin si Magsaysay, Romeo at Julieta, Babalu (the launching film of Daisy Romualdez) and May Isang Tsuper ng Taxi (acknowledged as his best performance ever).

Oscar Moreno eventually stopped making films to live abroad. By then, his daughter Boots had already embarked on her own career, first as a TV host, and, later, as an actress.

In the past several years, Oscar had become quite sickly and had to move around in a wheelchair. But he still managed to attend social gatherings that were important to him. During the surprise birthday party for Marichu Maceda at the Manila Polo Club last December, he was still part of the celebrations, but had to be tended to by Boots, who — up to the time her father breathed his last — proved to be a loving and devoted daughter to him.

Cesar Ramirez

When Cesar Ramirez joined the movies — initially as an extra in LVN and Sampaguita flicks — very few men were into bodybuilding. But his well-sculpted physique served him in good stead because the one movie that will always be identified with him is Bernardo Carpio where he played the title role of the Filipino folklore hero with legendary strength. (He was cast in this film opposite his wife, the original action queen Alicia Vergel, who passed away in 1991.)

Prior to Bernardo Carpio, Ramirez (real name: Arlen Quindoy Aguilar) had already starred in Teniente Ramirez in 1950.

Later, he continued making costume pictures that required him to perform a lot of stunts: Tres Muskiteros, Espada and El Indio. In some cases, he had to do his action scenes in loincloths a la Tarzan: Diwani, Ukala and Dumagit.

Unfortunately, Sampaguita was more identified with glossy melodramas and light musical comedies. The movie company that then churned out majority of the action films was Premiere Productions. That was where Cesar Ramirez moved after his contract with Sampaguita expired in the mid-’50s.

Under Premiere, he made the following action movies: Apat na Anino, Ang Matapang Lamang, Dead or Alive, Sa Baril Mag-usap at Labanan sa Balicuatro.

It was also in Premiere where he made the most important film of his movie career and, oddly enough, it wasn’t action. It was actually Huwag Mo Akong Limutin, an adult drama by the master filmmaker himself, Gerry de Leon.

Filmed in 1960, Huwag Mo Akong Limutin tackled the then delicate issues of adultery, sexual deprivation and pre-marital sex. Not surprisingly, it went through rough sailing with the board of censors. The film, however, was amply rewarded by the FAMAS which gave it a truckload of awards the year after its exhibition.

In the mid-’70s, Ramirez left the movies to live in the US. One of his last films was Signos Trece, starring Mildred Ortega, who was cast as a rich girl cursed with the number 13.

Like Oscar Moreno, Cesar Ramirez also left behind a second generation of fine actors: Beverly Vergel, who now does mostly TV productions and Ace Vergel, who, in spite of his personal troubles in the past, will always be acknowledged as an actor of note.