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CYNTHIA UGALDE SPEAKS OUT
By Joyce Abella Cuento
IS CYNTHIA UGALDE really suffering from mental
illness? Is this the reason why she
suddenly quit the movies and kept herself in seclusion?
This
is the rumor that has been circulating around since her sudden disappearance
from the movies nine months ago. Her
absence was a mystery. She never told
anyone that she was abandoning the movies.
And nobody had any inkling why she had kept herself away from the klieg
lights.
It
is precisely to unfold this mystery that I went to her house in Quezon City to
interview this former beauty queen.
“Me,
mentally ill?” Cynthia laughed when I popped the question to her. She leaned forward on the sofa where she was
seated.
Cynthia was not surprised to hear the question for the rumor had reached
her. She certainly did not look like one
who is or had been suffering from mental illness. She lost a few pounds but was looking
prettier and healthier than ever. She
was wearing a printed shirt and figure-hugging blue jeans, and had just come
home from a beauty shop when we interviewed her.
The
former Miss Philippines denied that she had been keeping herself from public
view because she was mentally ill. And
she maintained that she has never abandoned the movies. Two reasons had made her go into
semi-retirement: the expiration of her
contract and her studies.
After Cynthia’s last film, Bathing Beauties, which she made for Sampaguita,
her two-year contract with the studio expired last November. She was not the type to ask for a renewal of
her contract nor to approach other movie companies for assignments. As a holder of a national beauty title, she
felt she had to keep her prestige.
She
had received several movie offers but had rejected them. The offers called for her to display her
curves and Cynthia decided that if she should continue her movie career, it
should be because she has talent, not only glamour.
Besides, Cynthia was bent on finishing her home economics course. Combining her studies with acting had given
her a difficult time. Since she was
already free from her movie contract, she wanted to devote her full time to her
studies.
How
did the rumor of her being mentally ill start?
Probably it all started when I was confined for a few days at the UE
Hospital last February due to physical fatigue and anemia,” Cynthia explained.
Cynthia lost her health due to the hectic schedules she had been keeping. After making three pictures in a row, she had
to go to some provinces to crown a local belle or for personal
appearances. While coming home from a
midnight coronation in Batangas, she contracted a high fever. Upon reaching home, she collapsed at the
doorway. She regained consciousness at
the hospital. Upon the doctor’s order,
she was confined in a room with a “No visitors allowed” sign on the door.
When
she left the hospital she motored to Baguio for a much needed rest. After a few weeks she came back to the city
to resume her studies. However,
following her doctor’s advice she went to bed early and avoided crowds. Her mother or sister had to receive her
visitors and she had to reject invitations to parties.
If
Cynthia was not in school she stayed at home and spent her leisure time baking
or cooking, taking private piano lessons, listening to her favorite music
pieces on the stereo set, or completing her scrapbook.
According to Cynthia, it must have been those people who failed to see
her when she was sick that spread the rumors.
Now,
having regained her health and finished her home economics course, she attends
to parties and goes out with friends.
What
are Cynthia’s plans for the future?
“During my two years in the movies I discovered being an actress, one is
a public property and does not live her own life. She is subject to rumors. Let’s take my having been frequently linked
romantically with such and such actors and my being mentally ill. These rumors have hurt me,” Cynthia
explained.
“But
of course, I’d like to be in movies again despite all those heartaches. Acting has come into my system. But I want to be a real actress and get only
the right roles. I want to do a
musical-comedy role…”
“Will you marry soon now that you have turned twenty-one?”
To
this question, Cynthia blushed and smiled.
“I prefer to keep mum on the subject…”
Source: The Weekly Nation, September 17, 1965
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