Marília Pêra

Marília Pêra
Born	(1943-01-22)22 January 1943 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Died	5 December 2015(2015-12-05) (aged 72) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Cause of death	Lung cancer
Years active	1965–2015

Marília Pêra (22 January 1943 – 5 December 2015) was a Brazilian actress.^[1][2] Hailed as "one of the decade's [1980s] ten best actresses" by Pauline Kael, Pêra won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1982 for her role in Hector Babenco's acclaimed Pixote, and received Best Actress awards at the Gramado Film Festival (Triple Award Winner) and at the Cartegena Film Festival for Carlos Diegues' Better Days Ahead. Other films include Bar Esperança, Angels of the Night and Diegues' Tieta do Agreste.^[3]

Biography

Marília Soares Pêra (Marilia Pera da Graça Mello, after she married), was born on January 22, 1943 in the neighborhood of Rio Comprido, in Rio de Janeiro.

From 14 to 21 years, works as a dancer in musicals and revue as Minha Querida Lady (1962), starring Bibi Ferreira, and O Teu Cabelo Não Nega (1963) biography of Lamartine Babo, as Carmen Miranda - role that would repeat a few times in his career.^[4] Her father Manoel Pear enrolled her in a classical ballet school and took her to the television, to dance. Perâ participated in programs such as Espetáculos Tonelux, Grande Teatro Tupi, Grande Teatro da Imperatriz das Sedas, Teatrinho Troll and Câmera Um. In 1959, she left school to marry the actor Paulo Graça Mello. At 18, in 1961, she toured Brazil and Portugal with the play Henry Pongetti's Society em Baby-Doll. A year later, starred in the musical Como Vencer na Vida sem Fazer Força alongside Procópio Ferreira, Moacyr Franco and Berta Loran.

Career in television

Already separated from her husband, she was hired by director Abdon Torres in 1965 to join the cast that would usher in the Rede Globo, and starred in the telenovelas Rosinha do Sobrado and Padre Tião, both written by Moses Weltman. Also acted in A Moreninha, an adaptation of novel's Joaquim Manuel de Macedo written by Graça Mello, who was director of the station. Pêra also participated in the cast of Beto Rockfeller (1968), written by Bráulio Pedroso, on TV Tupi, the soap opera is considered a landmark of Brazilian television, for his modern language and urban ambiance. Pêra was invited by director Daniel Filho to return to the Globo in 1971, to interpret Shirley Sexy in O Cafona, character that gave him great popularity. Soon after, she played the taxi driver Noeli in Bandeira 2, written by Dias Gomes. The following year, she it was Serafina Rosa Petrone in Uma Rosa com Amor's Vicente Sesso, opposite Paul Goulart. Then she played the main character of the novel Supermanoela (1974), written by Walther Negrão.

In 1982, Pear played the character Alice in Quem Ama não Mata, written by Euclydes Marinho. The miniseries caused strong impact because of the realistic direction of Daniel Filho, and interpretations of the actress and Cláudio Marzo, and the approach of a controversial issue, the crime of passion. After 13 years, Pear returned to work in telenovelas on TV Globo, as Rafaela Alvaray in Brega & Chique, soap opera displayed in 1987, written by Cassiano Gabus Mendes. In the miniseries O Primo Basílio (1988), an adaptation of Gilberto Braga and Leonor Brassères of Eça de Queiroz's novel, Pêra played the villain Juliana, another remarkable character.

Pêra worked on two telenovelas by Ricardo Linhares: Lua Cheia de Amor (1991), co-written by Ana Maria Moretzsohn and Maria Carmen Barbosa, and Meu Bem Querer (1998). In Band, starred in O Campeão (1982), another novel Linhares, and the headline in Mandacaru (1997), written by Carlos Alberto Ratton. In 2001, Pêra participated of the cast in the miniseries Os Maia, a adaptation Eça de Queiroz's novel.

Recently, the actress was part of casts of the telenovelas Começar de Novo in 2004; Cobras & Lagartos, in 2006; Duas Caras in 2007.^[5] Her last work at the broadcaster was the TV show Pé na Cova [One foot in the grave, in an unofficial translation], aired since 2013. Recently she had taken time off from work for medical treatment.

Film career

Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known for her performance in Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1980), where she portrayed the character Suele. In 1982 she became the first South American ever honored in North America with a Best Actress Prize awarded by the National Society of Film Critics Awards. The film itself was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Golden Globe, but lost to that year's eventual Best Picture Oscar winner, Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire.^[6] Vincent Canby wrote for The New York Times in relation to the film: “The performances are almost too good to be true, but Mr. Da Silva and Miss Pera are splendid.”^[7] A former street kid, Fernando Ramos da Silva returned to the streets a few years after Pixote was released. He was killed by police – following an alleged shootout – at age 19 on Aug. 25, 1987.^[8]

Highlights of her movie career include Hugo Carvana's Bar Esperança (1983), in a comic performance as a temperamental soap opera star. Other films include: Central do Brasil (1998) and Jogo de Cena (2007). His last film work was in Polaroides Urbanas in 2008.^[9]

Death

Pêra died at her apartment in Rio de Janeiro from lung cancer at the age of 72.^[10]

Awards

Year	Organisation	Category	Work	Country	Result
1982	National Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Actress		United States	Won
	Boston Society of Film Critics Awards	Best Actress		United States	Won
1983	Gramado Film Festival	Best Actress	Bar Esperança	Brazil	Won
	Associação Paulista de Críticos de Artes	Best Actress	Quem Ama Não Mata	Brazil	Won
1984		Best Actress	Bar Esperança	Brazil	Won
1987	Gramado Film Festival	Best Actress	Anjos da Noite	Brazil	Won
1988	Troféu Imprensa	Best Actress	Brega & Chique	Brazil	Won
	Associação Paulista de Críticos de Artes	Best Actress		Brazil	Won
1991	Cartagena Film Festival	Best Actress	Dias Melhores Virão	Colombia	Won
	Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Artes	Best Actress		Brazil	Won
1997	Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Artes	Best Supporting Actress	Tieta do Agreste	Brazil	Won
2000	Cinema Brazil Grand Prize	Best Actress	O Viajante	Brazil	Won
2001	Prêmio Qualidade Brasil	Best Actress in a Special Project	Os Maias	Brazil	Nominated
2005	Prêmio Contigo! de TV	Best Supporting Actress	Começar de Novo	Brazil	Nominated
2006	Prêmio Qualidade Brasil	Best Actress in Television	JK	Brazil	Nominated
2007	Miami Brazilian Film Festival	Best Actress	Polaróides Urbanas	United States	Won
	Prêmio Contigo! de TV	Best Supporting Actress	Cobras & Lagartos	Brazil	Nominated
2008	Prêmio Contigo! de Cinema	Best Actress	Polaróides Urbanas	Brazil	Nominated
	Prêmio Contigo! de TV	Best Supporting Actress	Duas Caras	Brazil	Won

Filmography

Movies

Telenovelas

Series and Mini-Series

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marília Pêra.

• Marília Pêra at the Internet Movie Database