Rosario Moreno

Biography

Rosario Moreno (1916 – January 9, 1945) was a Filipina film actress popularly known as the “Queen of Tearjerkers” of prewar Philippine cinema. She began her career in the mid-1930s as a bit player under Nepomuceno Productions and rose to stardom by 1937 through her acclaimed performances in melodramas and tales of woe.

In 1938, she joined Sampaguita Pictures, where she achieved great success and formed a popular screen partnership with actor-singer Rudy Concepción, beginning with the film Alipin ng Palad (1938). The pair appeared together in four films, but while filming their fifth, Concepción died in 1940 at the age of 28 due to a peptic ulcer. That same year, Moreno made her final film, Magpakailanman, under Excelsior Pictures before retiring temporarily. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II, she became pregnant and was planning to marry the father of her unborn child, but on January 9, 1945, a Japanese bomb struck her home, killing her instantly along with her unborn baby.