DAGUPAN CITY, Philippines—Councilor Maybelline de la Cruz, a former child actress who had worked with Dolphy in the television sitcom “Home Along da Riles,” asked Pangasinenses to continue praying for the Quizon family as they mourn the death of the King of Comedy.
Dolphy, Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr. in real life, died on Tuesday night.
De la Cruz worked with Dolphy for eight years when she was cast as his 10-year-old niece in Home Along da Riles in 1992.
She also did three movies with the late actor before she joined local politics in 2010 after her marriage to former Councilor Michael Fernandez.
“My movie career actually started with him,” De la Cruz said in a radio interview here. “Tatay (Dolphy) acted as my manager, who guided me and even made decisions for me.”
While she was doing the TV sitcom, De la Cruz said she did not know that Dolphy was a famous actor because “he won’t make you feel that he is a big star.”
“Our studio was always filled with people then waiting for him to ask help. And Tatay did not tire listening to their problems,” she said.
She said it was Dolphy who taught her to love the craft by giving it importance.
She said the last time she visited him at the Makati Medical Center, where Dolphy had been confined since June 9, he told her to be herself, especially in politics.
“He told me that wherever I go, I would always win, that people voted for me because of what I am now,” she said.