Clad daily in the frugal rural dress of the camisón, saya and chinelas,[1]: 128  Doña Sisang, as she was widely known, was already a 61-year-old widow when she entered the film industry.

[1]: 84 LVN Pictures saw the peak of its success in the decade following the war, hosting a stable of the most prominent film stars who had joined its studios such as Rogelio de la Rosa.

[citation needed] In the late 1950s, LVN capitalized on the unexpected stardom of one of its contract players, the singer Diomedes Maturan who emerged as the top box-office draw of 1958–59.

[citation needed] During her years at the helm of LVN Pictures, she retained absolute control over the operations of the studio and of the films it produced.

Reflecting her upbringing and age, she was partial to rural romances and stories based on the traditional forms of awit and corrido, and populated her movies with Philippine folk dances; she resisted copying Hollywood trends and insisted on injecting Filipino culture into LVN films.

[1]: 80 Her idiosyncrasies aside, de Leon used the phrase "Kung ano ang kikita" ("Whatever makes money") to justify the choices of scripts LVN adapted into film.

")[1]: 80 De León was known for her acumen in selecting and cultivating stars; this was manifested early on in the casting of the very first LVN film, Giliw Ko.

She was instrumental in the casting of the then-unknown Mila del Sol in a romantic leading role, over the objection of director Vander Tolosa who felt that the 12-year-old actress was too young for the part.

[1][page needed] De León was a disciplinarian who maintained a strict supervision over the behavior of her stars,[5] restraining their spending habits by withholding portions of their salaries until their withheld pay was sufficient to buy a new house or car.

[1]: 50 She would often involve herself into the personal lives of her stars, engineering for example, the reconciliation between Nestor de Villa and his father, from whom he had become estranged after he disapproved of his becoming an actor.

Instead, she would develop "love team" tandems among her stars, such as Nestor de Villa and Nida Blanca, and encourage them to "Magpa-chismis kayo."

[1][page needed] Despite the box-office success of the films of LVN Pictures in the 1940s and 1950s, it was unable to sustain financial liquidity, and by 1961, it stopped producing movies and redirected its operations for post-production services.

She likewise attended to her other businesses and was active until the week before her death at age 88 in 1966;[1][page needed] De Leon is buried at the Manila North Cemetery.