Myrna Castillo

When controversial talent agent Rey dela Cruz discovered her, Myrna Castillo’s family was reportedly so poor that Myrna was sleeping in a chicken coop in Tondo. Her hardworking mother was a widow, doing her best to support her children in the squalid conditions they lived in. Dela Cruz, an optometrist by vocation, was also a film talent scout -a self-proclaimed “star builder” because of his success at turning impoverished, pretty young girls into movie celebrities.

Myrna was fifteen when he found her in 1980. In a Cinderella story that made tabloid and newspaper headlines, she went from living in squalor and selling bananas after school, to staring in her first film, Ito and Babae, in 1980. Her 17-year acting career spanned over 30 movies. Like many of dela Cruz’s actresses, she starred in numerous bold films, such as Brown Emmanuelle (1982), Virgin People (1984), and When Good Girls Go Wrong (1987). Many cut, explicit “Pene” clips of her exist.

There was even a censored lesbian scene from Hudas (1987). Here is the scene as it appeared in the theater:

And here are stills from the cut footage: