Marília Pêra

Marília Soares Pêra (22 January 1943 – 5 December 2015) was a Brazilian actress, singer, and stage director.

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.

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.

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 her career.

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 1965, Pêra was hired by director Abdon Torres 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.

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 Cartagena Film Festival for Carlos Diegues' Better Days Ahead.

Other films include Bar Esperança, Angels of the Night, and Diegues' Tieta do Agreste.

Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known for her performance in Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1980), where she portrayed the character Sueli.

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.

In Band, starred in O Campeão (1982), another novel Linhares, and the headline in Mandacaru (1997), written by Carlos Alberto Ratton.

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.

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.” A former street kid, Fernando Ramos da Silva returned to the streets a few years after Pixote was released.

Highlights of her movie career include Hugo Carvana's Bar Esperança (1983), in a comic performance as a temperamental soap opera star.

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.

He was killed by police – following an alleged shootout – at age 19 on Aug. 25, 1987.

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).

Other films include: Central do Brasil (1998) and Jogo de Cena (2007).

In 2001, Pêra participated of the cast in the miniseries Os Maias, an adaptation Eça de Queiroz's novel.

The actress was part of casts of the telenovelas Começar de Novo in 2004; Cobras & Lagartos, in 2006; Duas Caras in 2007.

Her last film work was in Polaroides Urbanas in 2008.

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

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.