141 Facts About Nora Aunor

Nora Aunor rose to fame in the following years as both a singer and actress.

Nora Aunor is the most nominated actress in the history of the Gawad Urian Awards with 21 nominations, winning seven, and the only performer to be chosen as one of Gawad Urian's Best Actors and Actresses of the Decade in three different decades.

Nora Aunor is the first and only Filipino to win the Asian Film Award for Best Actress.

Nora Aunor won nine trophies from PMPC Star Awards for her work in film and television, as well as eight Metro Manila Film Festival Awards, four Luna Awards, five Young Critics Circle Awards, a Cairo International Film Festival award, an Asia Pacific Screen Award, an Asian Film Award, among others.

Nora Aunor was born on May 21,1953, as Nora Cabaltera Villamayor in Barrio San Francisco, Iriga, Camarines Sur to Antonia Cabaltera and Eustacio Villamayor.

When Nora Aunor was growing up, her grandmother Theresa taught her to sing; the first song she learned was "The Way of a Clown".

Nora Aunor grew up in poverty, selling peanuts on buses and cold water in front of the Bicol Express Train Station to make ends meet.

Nora Aunor became a champion at the Darigold Jamboree radio singing contest, singing her winning piece "You and the Night and the Music".

Nora Aunor entered the national singing contest, Tawag ng Tanghalan, was defeated on her first try, but became champion on her second attempt on May 29,1967, where she sang "Moonlight Becomes You".

Nora Aunor went to Mabini Memorial College for first grade, and transferred to Nichols Air Base Elementary School on reaching second grade.

Nora Aunor finished high school at Generosa de Leon Memorial College in Paranaque, an affiliate of Centro Escolar University.

Nora Aunor made her first TV appearance as a guest in An Evening with Pilita hosted by Pilita Corrales and Carmen on Camera hosted by Carmen Soriano.

On October 2,1967, Nora Aunor signed an eight-picture non-exclusive contract with Sampaguita Pictures, with the assurance that she would be given a singing part.

Nora Aunor made several youth-oriented films like All Over The World and Way Out of the Country.

From September to December 1967, Nora Aunor had supporting and minor roles in six films.

Nora Aunor continued to make teeny-bopper films alongside Tirso Cruz III.

Nora Aunor eventually evolved from being a teen idol to dramatic actress when she received her first Best Actress award in 1972 for her film And God Smiled at Me from Quezon City Film Festival.

Nora Aunor was first nominated as a best actress in FAMAS for A Gift of Love.

Nora Aunor was nominated 17 times and won 5 times by FAMAS for best actress, and was nominated 21 times by Gawad Urian, with 7 wins.

In 1973, Nora Aunor established her own film production company, NV Productions and produced its first film titled Carmela.

Nora Aunor was again nominated in the 1974 FAMAS Awards for Paru-parung Itim.

Nora Aunor made Fe, Esperanza, Caridad another critically acclaimed film which was directed by three different directors namely Cirio H Santiago and two National Artists for film; Gerardo de Leon and Lamberto V Avellana.

Nora Aunor produced and starred in the hit film Banaue: Stairway to the Sky which was directed by national artist Gerardo de Leon.

Nora Aunor received her fourth FAMAS nomination at the FAMAS Awards.

In 1976, Nora Aunor produced the film Alkitrang Dugo through her own film production company, NV Productions.

Nora Aunor continued to produce and act in films such as the period drama Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos.

Nora Aunor played the role of a school teacher named Rosario, who experienced the atrocities of World War II.

Nora Aunor's performance won her the very first best actress award given by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino and her first Best Actress Award from FAMAS.

In 1977, Nora Aunor starred in the romantic-comedy film with Fernando Poe Jr.

Nora Aunor was paired with Joseph Estrada, who would later become president of the Philippines.

At the 1978 FAMAS Awards, Nora Aunor received her sixth nomination for her movie Bakya Mo Neneng, and won the FAMAS Award for Best Picture.

Nora Aunor appeared in Ikaw Ay Akin, directed by Ishmael Bernal.

Nora Aunor was nominated for the seventh time at the 1979 FAMAS Awards.

Nora Aunor was nominated for the Gawad Urian for Best Actress and won at the 1980 FAMAS Awards for her role.

That same year, Nora Aunor made another film with Mario O'Hara, Kastilyong Buhangin with Lito Lapid as her leading man.

Nora Aunor won her second Gawad Urian Best Actress for Bona, tying with Gina Alajar, who won for Brutal; Nora Aunor won her ninth Best Actress nomination from the 1981 FAMAS Awards for the same film.

In 1981, Nora Aunor made six films: Lino Brocka's Dalaga si Misis, Binata si Mister, Mario O'Hara's Gaano Kita Kamahal, and three films by Maryo de los Reyes - Totoo Ba ang Tsismis, Ibalik ang Swerti, and Rock N Roll.

Nora Aunor won the Best Actress award from the Catholic Mass Media Awards.

Nora Aunor continued to make romantic comedy films in 1982, such as Annie Sabungera and Palengke Queen.

In 1983, Aunor made a single film, Minsan, May Isang Ina, with Charito Solis and Maricel Soriano, and directed by Maryo J de los Reyes.

At the Gawad Urian that year, Nora Aunor was a double nominee for Best Actress for Bulaklak sa City Jail and Merika, while at the PMPC Star Awards for Movies, Nora Aunor was a triple nominee for Best Actress for Merika, Condemned, and Bulaklak sa City Jail.

Nora Aunor was nominated for Best Actress at the Film Academy of the Philippines for Bulaklak sa City Jail.

Nora Aunor has now defined for us the meaning of a true triumph of the spirit.

Nora Aunor did three stage plays, two of them produced by the Philippine Educational Theater Association.

Nora Aunor won the first Young Critics Circle Award for Best Performance.

Nora Aunor's guests included Gary Valenciano, Mon Faustino, The Hotlegs, The Operas, and many more.

Later in 1991, Nora Aunor ventured into theater and did the stage adaptation of her critically acclaimed film, Minsa'y Isang Gamu-gamo.

Nora Aunor did two more stage plays, DH in 1992 and The Trojan Women in 1994.

Nora Aunor played a mother struggling to take care of her vegetative daughter.

Nora Aunor won numerous awards for her performance, including the Metro Manila Film Festival Best Actress and her third consecutive Best Actress trophy from the Film Academy of the Philippines.

Nora Aunor won at the Star Awards for Movies and from the Young Critics Circle Award for Best Performance.

Nora Aunor won the Best Actress Award from Star Awards for Television.

Nora Aunor went back into the recording studio to record bonus tracks for a compilation album to be released in co-operation with Alpha Records and Warner Brothers.

In 1994, Nora Aunor received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Film Academy of the Philippines.

Nora Aunor was the youngest recipient of this special award.

In 1995, Nora Aunor found renewed success in the box office when she starred in the biographical film The Flor Contemplacion Story, about Filipino domestic worker Flor Contemplacion who was hanged in Singapore for allegedly killing her fellow maid.

In June 1996, Nora Aunor was cast to play Sisa in Premiere Productions' then-upcoming film adaptation of Jose Rizal's novel Noli Me Tangere, though the project did not come to fruition.

In 1999, Nora Aunor made only one film, Sidhi, written by Rolando Tinio, a National Artist for Theater and Literature.

Later that year, Nora Aunor received the Centennial Honors for the Arts from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, conferred to Filipinos who have made significant contributions to culture and the arts in the 20th century.

In 2002, Nora Aunor returned to Philippine television through her nightly drama show entitled, Bituin, a soap opera that was aired by ABS-CBN from September 23,2002, to May 23,2003.

In 2003, Nora Aunor held her 50th birthday Gold sell-out concert at the Araneta Coliseum.

In 2004, Nora Aunor made Naglalayag, her last film shot entirely in the Philippines before she went on hiatus for almost eight years.

Nora Aunor played a middle-aged judge having an affair with a young taxi driver, portrayed by Yul Servo.

On December 1,2005, Nora Aunor received her own star on the Philippines Walk of Fame as one of its first inductees.

Nora Aunor toured the United States and Canada performing to Filipino communities in a series of concerts at the start of the decade.

On March 23,2010, Nora Aunor was named one of the 10 Best Asian Actresses along with Gong Li and Maggie Cheung.

Nora Aunor was the only Filipino actress to be shortlisted and win this award.

Nora Aunor made two endorsement deals in Japan, including one for a skin clinic.

However, due to a botched surgery in Japan, Nora Aunor lost her singing voice, During her concert in May 2010 in Toronto, Canada, Nora Aunor tearfully announced that it would be her last concert as she could no longer sing.

Nora Aunor signed a three-year contract with TV5 and was cast in the mini series Sa Ngalan ng Ina, where she played a widow who suddenly finds herself embracing the complexities of political life and government power.

Nora Aunor received a nomination from Golden Screen TV Awards and a best actress trophy from 2012 Star Awards for Television.

Nora Aunor starred alongside ER Ejercito in the historical film El Presidente, a biopic of the first Philippine President Emilio Aguinaldo intended for the 2012 Metro Manila Film Festival, in which she played the role of Aguinaldo's second wife Maria Agoncillo.

In 2012, Nora Aunor collaborated with the Cannes best director awardee Brillante Mendoza for the film Thy Womb which was part of the 69th Venice International Film Festival.

Nora Aunor played Shaleha, a barren Badjao midwife who helps her husband look for a wife who can bear a child.

In November 2012, Nora Aunor won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Performance by an Actress and the film won the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Achievement in Directing for Brillante Mendoza.

Nora Aunor was nominated at the 55th Asia Pacific Film Festival, Dubai International Film Festival, 43rd International Film Festival of India, and won Best Actress at the seventh Asian Film Awards.

At the 2012 Metro Manila Film Festival, Nora Aunor won her eighth best actress award from the Festival.

Also in 2012, Nora Aunor guested in the fantasy-drama TV series Enchanted Garden, as a faith healer who happens to be a queen.

On May 21,2013, Aunor celebrated her 60th birthday dubbed as "Nora at 60" at the Meralco Multi-Purpose Hall.

On June 18,2013, Nora Aunor won the Gawad Urian Award for Best Actress for Thy Womb.

Nora Aunor portrayed a wife who takes care of her terminally-ill husband.

Nora Aunor was honored as one of the "People of the Year" by People Asia magazine on January 21,2014.

On February 2,2014, Nora Aunor received her second Ani ng Dangal Award from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Nora Aunor made four films in 2014, including Hustisya, which was part of the 10th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Nora Aunor won her first Best Actress award from this festival.

In 2012, Nora Aunor received the Asian Achiever Award as Asia's Best Actress Awardee by the Asia Pacific Awards Council led by consumer advocate Jonathan Navea.

Nora Aunor again received the same accolade during the 26th Asia Pacific Excellence Awards on April 9,2015.

On May 16,2015, Nora Aunor won her eighth International Best actress for Dementia which won the Best Foreign Language Film at the St Tropez International Film Festival in France.

Nora Aunor won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2015 ASEAN International Film Festival.

In 2015, Nora Aunor was recognized by several universities and colleges in the Philippines, naming her as a cultural Icon.

On September 17,2015, Nora Aunor was conferred the Gawad CPP para sa Sining for Film and Broadcast Arts by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

At the 63rd FAMAS Awards on September 20,2015, Nora Aunor was recognized as the Iconic Movie Queen of Philippine Cinema.

In 2020, Nora Aunor appeared in the film Isa Pang Bahaghari, with Phillip Salvador and Michael de Mesa, directed by Joel Lamangan.

In May 2020 on her 67th birthday, during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, Nora Aunor appeared in the Youtube video Lola Doc.

In 2021, Nora Aunor was chosen as one of the Best Actors and Actresses of the Decade by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, the Filipino film critic group of the Gawad Urian Award.

In late 2021, Nora Aunor was cast in her first antagonist role in the film Kontrabida, directed by Adolfo Alix Jr.

In June 2022, Nora Aunor received the National Artist of the Philippines award following Proclamation 1390 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte.

In 2023, Nora Aunor starred in Pieta, a drama-thriller directed by Alix, with Alfred Vargas, Bembol Roco, Gina Alajar, and Jaclyn Jose.

Nora Aunor portrayed a mother who is going blind and suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's who meets her son who is released from prison after 25 years.

Nora Aunor made a cameo appearance in the 2024 musical drama film and Metro Manila Film Festival entry Isang Himala, an adaptation of the 2018 theatrical play based on Nora Aunor's 1982 film Himala.

In February 2025, Nora Aunor starred in her final film titled Mananambal, a horror film directed by Alix.

On May 4,2025, Nora Aunor was posthumously conferred with the Presidential Medal of Merit from President Bongbong Marcos for her services to the arts.

In 1986, Nora Aunor campaigned for the reelection of President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 snap election, stating in her television program Superstar that she believed Marcos could solve the problems in Philippine society.

Nora Aunor publicly supported actor Joseph Estrada's successful candidacy in the 1998 Philippine presidential election but withdrew her support during the Second EDSA Revolution, in which she personally participated, in January 2001.

Nora Aunor had accused Estrada of hitting her while they were both in a relationship in their acting careers.

Nora Aunor endorsed Estrada's reelectionist successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in the 2004 election.

Nora Aunor ran for governor of Camarines Sur, her home province, in 2001.

Raul Roco said that she would be the Arroyo administration's candidate, with Nora Aunor running under Aksyon Demokratiko, Roco's party.

In 2024, Nora Aunor registered her candidacy as second nominee of the People's Champ Guardians party-list for the 2025 Philippine House of Representatives elections.

Nora Aunor's niece Marion Aunor is a singer and actress.

Records from the Marriage Inquiry System of Clark County, Las Vegas indicates that Nora Aunor married two individuals at different dates during her stay in the United States.

Nora Aunor explained that at the time the supposed marriage occurred, same-sex marriage was only legal in the state of Massachusetts, and it is impossible for them to be wed in Las Vegas.

On March 30,2005, Nora Aunor was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after being found with eight grams of methamphetamine and a glass pipe in her carry-on luggage.

Nora Aunor became a permanent resident of the United States in 2008.

Nora Aunor died aged 71 on the night of April 16,2025, at The Medical City Ortigas in Pasig.

In 1983, Nora Aunor was recognized as one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service in the Field of the Arts.

In 1999, Nora Aunor received the Centennial Honors for the Arts awarded by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Nora Aunor was the only film actress included in the list of awardees.

In 2014, Nora Aunor was the recipient of the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication's Gawad Plaridel Award.

On September 17,2015, Nora Aunor was conferred the Gawad CCP para sa Sining for Film and Broadcast Arts, the highest award given by the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Nora Aunor was conferred the Gusi Peace Prize in 2015.

In 2022, Nora Aunor was conferred as National Artist of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts.

Nora Aunor received recognition for the outstanding box-office performances of her films.

Nora Aunor won the Philippine Box Office Queen Award in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

For being the consummate actor, Nora Aunor received numerous national and international awards and nominations.

Nora Aunor was named Best Actress for Thy Womb at the Asian Film Awards and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, and given the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 by the ASEAN International Film Festival and Awards.

Nora Aunor was directed by four Philippine National Artist Awardees: Gerardo de Leon, Lamberto Avellana, Lino Brocka, and Ishmael Bernal.

Nora Aunor acted with two Philippine National Artist Awardees for Theater in films: Rolando Tinio, and Tony Mabesa.

Nora Aunor released more than 360 singles and recorded over 200 songs and more than 50 albums.

Nora Aunor had more than 30 gold singles, and with an estimated gross sales of one million units, her 1971 cover of "Pearly Shells" stands as one of the biggest-selling singles in Philippine music history.

Nora Aunor performed in three plays: Minsa'y Isang Gamu-Gamo, DH in 1992, and The Trojan Women.

At the peak of her career, Nora Aunor was the top product endorser for television, print, and radio advertisements.

Nora Aunor was awarded, recognized and received multiple nominations from different organizations, academe, institutions, critics and award giving bodies for her work in film, television, music and theater.

Nora Aunor is the most nominated actress for the leading role in the long history of FAMAS Awards, having nominated 17 times since 1973 when she was first nominated for A Gift of Love but only second to Eddie Garcia with 23 nominations both in leading and supporting role.

Nora Aunor is the only performer in the history of FAMAS Awards to be nominated for 15 straight years from 1973 to 1987.

Nora Aunor had more international best actress awards and nominations more than any other Filipino actor.

Nora Aunor is the only Filipino actress who has won international awards from five different continents: 19th Cairo International Film Festival in 1995, first East Asia Film and Television Award in 1997 and Asian Film Awards in 2013,31st Festival International du Film Independant de Bruxelles in 2004 and Premio Della Critica Indipendiente in 2013, Asia Pacific Screen Award in 2013 and from the Green Planet Movie Award.

In 1968, Nora Aunor was contracted by Alpha Records on the recommendation of singer Carmen Soriano.

Nora Aunor was the artist with the most singles in Philippine recording history.

Nora Aunor achieved more than 30 gold singles, a record in the local music industry.

Nora Aunor recorded some 46 hit long-playing albums, and several extended plays.