Perla Marcial Bautista is a Filipino actress whose career span more than six decades. She began her career playing minor roles in the late 1950s until she became a top-billed actress in the 1960s. She is known for portraying maternal roles in the succeeding decades and has since received five FAMAS Awards and a Gawad Urian.
Bautista, at the age of 17, joined LVN Pictures together with teenage stars such as Bernard Bonnin, Luz Valdez, Marita Zobel and Hector Reyes. She was formally introduced in the movie Eddie, Junior Detective (1958). She appeared such films like Malvarosa (1958), Casa Grande (1958), Venganza (1958), Black Beauty (1960) with Charito Solis, and Kilabot sa Barilan (1960) starring Fernando Poe Jr.
The first independent outfit Tagalog Ilang Ilang Productions under the late Atty. Espiridion Laxa built up the unique loveteam of Joseph Estrada-Perla Bautista in their first film together Markang Rehas (1962), both won the FAMAS best actor and best actress trophies.
Bautista did films like De Colores (1968) starring Joseph Estrada, Amalia Fuentes, and Leopoldo Salcedo, and Crush Ko Si Sir (1971) starring Dante Rivero, Hilda Koronel and Jay Ilagan. She played the mother of Nora Aunor in the classic film Minsa'y Isang Gamu-gamo (1976).
She starred in the film Grandpa Is Dead (2009) with Elizabeth Oropesa, Roderick Paulate and Manilyn Reynes, directed by Soxy Topacio. Bautista played the title role in the independent film Hermana Fausta (2009). She played the lead role in Ang Maestra, about a retired teacher with Alzheimer's disease and starred in the horror film Huling Habilin, about an old woman's ghost seeking justice.
She was cast in the television series Apoy sa Dagat starring Piolo Pascual, Diether Ocampo, and Angelica Panganiban.
She is the fifth of eight children of Vicente Bautista and Carmen Marcial. She finished secondary education at the Torres High School and enrolled in Commerce at the Lyceum of the Philippines. She has one son, Jude.