Amalia Fuentes: Miss Number One
In 1956, Amalia Fuentes and Juancho Gutierrez joined a ‘search for a name’ contest conducted by Sampaguita Pictures to promote the movie Hindi Basta-Basta, topbilled by Gloria Romero, reigning queen of Philippine cinema. Then Amalia and Juancho were simply known as Mr. & Miss Number One.
Their offscreen names were chosen as winners.
Actually, Fuentes is the surname of Amalia’s stepfather. Her parents were Alvaro Muhlach Sr., of German-Spanish ancestry, and Concepcion Amador.
Amalia was paired with Juancho in several movies, including Pakiusap. But her tandem with Romeo Vasquez proved to be more lasting, among them, Bilanggong Birhen and Bobby. At Sampaguita, Amalia was also paired with Eddie Gutierrez, Jose Mari, Luis Gonzales.
Nena and Bobby, as they were familiarly called, were briefly married and had a daughter, the late Anna Lisa (Liezl), who married Albert Martinez, with three children, Alyana, Allysa and Alfonso.
At the peak of her beauty, Amalia was dubbed ‘the Elizabeth Taylor of the Philippines.’
She suffered a stroke a year ago, but is said to be slowly recovering. — RKC
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