Horror movie icon’s loss mourned

PINILI, Ilocos Norte—Every Halloween night here, award-winning actress Lilia Cuntapay had been part of a “ghost” parade called “Parada Iloca-locana” around Laoag City, during the annual celebration of Ilocos Norte’s Semana ti Ar-aria (Halloween Bash).

Cuntapay, a familiar face in many Filipino horror movies, was often joined by Gov. Imee Marcos.

So Ilocanos grieved when she passed away on Saturday at her son’s house in the remote Barangay Tartarabang here. She would have turned 81 on Sept. 16.

“We have lost a vibrant and gracious Ilocana but we have forever been given an unforgettable icon, whose talent enlivened the screen and brought magic to our humdrum lives. We will miss you, Nana Lilia!” Marcos said in a text message.

A week before her death, Cuntapay had appealed to friends in the film industry to help finance her medication. She was suffering from a severe spinal cord ailment, which made walking difficult.

Born and raised in Gonzaga town in Cagayan province, Cuntapay was a former elementary schoolteacher in Tuguegarao City before she migrated to Metro Manila.

Employed at the National Police Commission, Cuntapay was discovered by a movie producer.

Early this month, she was reunited with her only son, Gilmore, who lives in this town with his wife and eight children.

“I intended to have her confined at a hospital in Batac City [on the day she died] so I asked a midwife from this town for assistance. But my mother was gone by the time they arrived to take her to the hospital,” Gilmore said.

LILIA CUNTAPAY’S screen appearances had given some Filipino moviegoers nightmares. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

He said his mother’s dying wish was to be buried in Gonzaga but he wanted her buried closer to her family at the public cemetery here on or before her 81st birthday on Sept. 16.

Cuntapay had appeared in 70 movies and television soap operas, among them the sequels of “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” “Okatokat,” and “Wansapanataym.”

She won the best actress trophy in the 2011 Cinema One Originals Film Festival.

She was also the subject of an independent film documentary, “Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay,” directed by Antoinette Jadaone. The film was presented at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, in April 2012.

Spending more than half of her life in the entertainment industry, her career earned a boost when she was featured in the 1991 movie, “Shake, Rattle and Roll.”