Biography and career of late Lilia Dizon
Lilia Dizon, the mother of actor Christopher de Leon is considered as one of the phenomenal stars in the year 1950s.
But earlier, news broke that she has passed away at the age of 92 due to complications for lung cancer.
In this article, let’s look back at the life of the veteran actress who has been known as the “erstwhile bombshell of the silver screen.”
Lilia Dizon, the mother of Christopher de Leon rose to fame in 1950s when she starred in some of the remarkable movies under LVN Pictures such as “Bathaluman,” “Sanda Wong” and “Kandilerong Pilak” wherein she won Asia’s Best Actress in 1956.
Lilia Dizon or Claire Strauss in real life is the daughter of Regina Dizon, a Filipina and Abe Strauss, an American. But one year before the 2nd world war, her father left in 1940 and went to the United States.
She lived since then along with her mother who is in Baguio City.
“Just before the liberation, we had to walk on foot across the mountains of Baguio going to Ilocos, to escape the wrath of the desperate Japanese soldiers,” Lylia Dizon recalled according to Blast from the Past.
Her experience in that exodus might have paved her way to effortlessly portray her first acting role via “Kaaway ng Babae” in 1948 wherein she needs to act and run like a man.
But in her tender age at 17, she tied the knot with her former husband Gil de Leon, who was 16 years her senior.
However, after eighteen years of marriage, they got separated. She was 36 at the time when they ended their marriage.
“I have to do it because I’d go crazy. Our marriage lasted for eighteen years only because I couldn’t give up my career, and my kids were too young—- Boyet, Pinky, and Melissa. But after eighteen years, I said, enough is enough. I packed my bags and went to my father in the United States,” she said.
In the year 1966, she went to Salinas, California, and lived with her father.
Lilia Dizon started her career at an early age. At 15, she became a stage singer at Lotus Theater and when she turned 16, she ventured into movies after being discovered by Susana de Guzman, a writer-director. And at 17, she entered the married life.