At the age of 9, Vilma was tapped to star opposite Gloria Romero & Rita Gomez in the movie Anak, ang Iyong Ina. She was discovered by her uncle Mr. Amaury Agra, who was a cameraman at the Sampaguita Studios. When she, together with her mother went to the Sampaguita compound to report, an audition was going on. Seeing the more than a hundred kids auditioning, Vi went and watched. Dr. Jose Perez, producer of Sampaguita, saw the little Vi and asked her to join the audition. Vi was hesitant because she know that shes there for a different movie, but she was prodded to join. When her turn came, she acted with veteran Bella Flores. All the people were impressed, much more Dr. Perez! Vilma got the title role for the movie Trudis Liit. So, that at age 9, she was making two movies at the same time!
She continued doing movies as daughter of big stars Gloria Romero, Lolita Rodriguez, Rita Gomez, Marlene Dauden, Eddie Rodriguez and a lot more. In 1968, at the age of 15, she got the Best Supporting Actress award from the San Beda College awards for the movie Kasalanan Kaya? She was also nominated for a FAMAS award.
She had her first leading role in 1969, in the movie My Darling, Eddie. She also starred in various TV programs, one of which is The Sensations at ABS-CBN, together with the young stars of the era.
In 1973, she starred as filipino superwoman, Darna in Lipad, Darna, Lipad. It was a huge hit, grossing even bigger than the movie tandem of Joseph Estrada & Nora Aunor in Erap is my Guy and Fernando Poe, Jr. in Esteban. From then on, Vilma was the undisputed Box Office Queen of Phil. Cinema. Aside from commercial success, she also gained critical acclaim. She won the FAMAS Best Actress in 1972 for her dual role in Dama de Noche. She was the youngest winner at 19.
Critical acclaims continues. She is the only actress to have won the URIAN Best Actress award, three years in a row (1982, 1983, 1984). Aside from winning the most number of URIAN Awards- a total of 8 Best Actress. She is the only actress to have scored a guadruple Grandslam in Best Actress for the movies Relasyon (1982), Dolzura Cortez Story (1993), Bata, Bata...Paano ka Ginawa? (1998) and Dekada 70 (2002). She is also the only actress to be given two Circle of Excellence award by the FAMAS. She has also conquered the international scene, winning the Best Actress awards in Brussels (1998) and CineManila (2003).
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____Vilma is the first Filipino actress to be featured in Time Magazine
Time Magazine Feb. 13,
1978 Vol. 111 No. 7
The Philippines: Let Them See Films. When politics became pretty much a one-man show in the Philippines, the people lost a prime source of entetainment. Part of the gap has been filled by a burgeoning home-grown film industry, which displayed nine of its new productions at the Manila Film Festival last month. Some 2 million moviegoers saw the films.
Some of the movies were historical dramas pointing up the search for a Filipino identity during the long years of Spanish rule. But the most acclaimed were contemporary stories with a heavy populist touch. The festivals smash hit was Burlesk Queen, starring Filipino Superstar Vilma Santos. It tells the syrupy tale of a poor girl who turns to burlesque dancing to support a crippled father. She falls in love with the son of a politician, elopes with him, and then tragically loses him back to his possessive mother. The treacle is supplemented with some gritty argument about the rights and wrongs of burlesque, with a lefthanded dig at censors. Huffs the burlesque impresario at one point: Who are they to dictate what the people should see?
