 During the height of her fame, she was one of the most bankable stars of Sampaguita Pictures, which used to be one of the leading Philippine movie studios of the era.Born to a Spanish-Irish father and a Spanish mother, Marlene graduated from Saint Scholastica's College in León Guinto Street, Malate, Manila.In the beginning, she was entirely a stranger to Tagalog, then the main dialect used for mainstream Filipino movies because Marlene only spoke English at school and Spanish at home.