Marlia Hardi

Marlia Hardi (also Marlia Hardy; 10 March 1927 – 18 June 1984) was an Indonesian film actress active from 1951 to 1983. Born in the Central Javan city of Magelang, she took to the stage in the 1940s before moving to Jakarta in 1949. Two years later she made her feature film debut in Untuk Sang Merah Putih. Over the next two decades she appeared in over seventy films, became recognized for her depictions of mothers, and received the Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress. Despite her productiveness, however, she sank into debt and committed suicide at the age of fifty-seven.

Hardi was born in Magelang, Central Java, on 10 March 1927. She was of mixed Bugis and Javanese descent, through her father and mother, respectively. She received an elementary education at a Dutch-run school for indigenous Indonesians. By the 1940s she had become involved in the theatre, and married Hardjo Samidi. During the Indonesian National Revolution, while her husband was held by the returning Dutch colonial forces, Hardi eked out a living on her own.

In late 1949 Hardi and her husband moved to Jakarta. Two years later she made her feature film debut in a bit role in the Produksi Film Negara (PFN; State Film Corporation)'s Untuk Sang Merah Putih. The following year she took a starring role in another PFN film, Si Pintjang, portraying an old woman; as she was only twenty-four, she was artificially aged with make-up. That same year she appeared as the lead love interest in Selamat Berdjuang, Masku!, a Djakarta Film production. Hardi completed four other films in 1951.

Over the next decade Hardi appeared in more than a dozen films, often in mother roles, for a number of companies, including Perfini's Terimalah Laguku (1952) and Tjambuk Api (1958), Gabungan Artis Film's Pulang (1952), Bintang Surabaja's Pelarian dari Pagar Besi (1951), and Kino Drama Atelier's Gadis Olahraga (1951). She also started a short-lived company, Budaya Film (literally 'Culture Film'), which had a single production: Uang Palsu (1955), directed by Hasan Basry R.M. By April 1955 she and Samidi, who was working as an employee of the censorship bureau, had two children: Hartati and Pradjono.

In the mid-1960s, despite the film industry stagnating in Indonesia's economic and political turmoils, Hardi remained active. She appeared in five films between 1964 and 1967, winning a Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Petir Sepandjang Malam. During the 1970s and early 1980s she was mainly active in supporting roles – often as mother figures. She had also found success on television with the TVRI series Keluarga Marlia Hardi [id], which debuted in 1973 and continued until Hardi's death. On the show, she portrayed the wife of Awaludin, with a number of younger actors playing their children. The success of this programme led to numerous imitations.

Despite her popular success, however, Hardi was sinking into debt. On 18 June 1984, she was found dead in her Jakarta home, having hanged herself. In her suicide note, Hardi wrote that she had been driven to kill herself by her debts; she owed five million rupiah to her arisan group. In one letter, to fellow actor Ratno Timoer [id], she wrote that suicide "was the best road" for her. In another letter, to TVRI, she asked the company to take care of affairs related to her burial. In a column, the journalist-cum-actor Rachman Arge [id] wrote that her death was all the more shocking owing to Hardi's frequent portrayal of strong, wise mothers, to whom millions of viewers could turn when they felt themselves lost in the bustle of modern life. Similar sentiments were expressed in an obituary in Tempo: "now we have all become orphans".

Hardi won a Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress at the Indonesian Film Festival for her performance as Djafar's mother in Petir Sepandjang Malam in 1967. In 1981 she was nominated for a Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Grandmother in Busana dalam Mimpi, but lost out to Mieke Wijaya of Kembang Semusim.

During her more than two decades as an actress, Hardi appeared in some seventy-three roles.