Veteran Actress and Radio Icon
May 9, 1928 – March 16, 2021
Laura Laforteza Hermosa was a veteran Filipina actress, acclaimed radio voice talent, and director. She became known for her impeccable radio voice acting in the radio show “Krisalis (1950)” with the late director Susana de Guzman and veteran radio artist Tina Loy as her mentors.
Tessie Tomas, her only daughter, who is also an actress and TV host, recalled how her mother trained her. “At age 10, around 1960, she made me her protégé, teaching me voice acting, kaya alam ko ang tawang mayaman, tawang mahirap, at tawang hostes.”
The mother-daughter tandem also graced the 1965 Palmolive Soap advertisement, “Like Mother, Like Daughter.”
Laura also became a director and appeared as a character actress in a few films such as “Boss, Basta Ikaw, Wanakosey (as Ning, 1977),” “Laruang Apoy (as Tuding, 1977),” “Broken Marriage (as Ellen’s mother, 1983),” “Good Time Girls (1985),” and “Nagbabagang Luha (as judge, 1988).”
Her TV show credits include her various guest appearances in some episodes of the TV drama anthology Maalaala Mo Kaya (MMK), including Jigsaw Puzzle (1998), Apron (2000), and Keyboard (2000).
Behind the limelight, Laura Hermosa was a great wife to Fernando Hermosa, her late husband who worked as part-time voice talent. She was also a loving mother to six children. In a Facebook post, Tessie Tomas-Pullin called her mother “the lovely, dynamic, silver-haired Queen of the Hermosa Family.” She also expressed her gratitude to her saying, “It has been a life well-lived. Saludo ako sa iyo, Mama. Sa tapang mo, sa tibay mo, sa sipag mo, at pagmamahal mo sa ating pamilya.”
Around February 2021, Laura recovered from a severe COVID-19 infection with pneumonia. A few weeks after, on March 16, 2021, she died peacefully in her sleep due to renal failure at age 92 in her Makati City residence.
The administration of the Star Cinema described Laura Hermosa’s passing as “a great loss to the entertainment industry.”
Bibeth Orteza, head writer of “Hapi House (IBC 13, 1987-1990),” a family situational comedy adaptation of the American TV show “Our House,” acknowledged Laura’s role for Tessie’s success in showbusiness because “she taught her the rudiments of voice acting and styling.” Orteza also described Hermosa as “a calming presence in the set of Hapi House,” where she performed her role as a nanny with a flair.
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