Marília Soares Pêra (22 January 1943 – 5 December 2015) was a Brazilian actress, singer and theater director. Throughout her career, she won around 80 awards, acting in 49 plays, 29 telenovelas and more than 20 films.

Career

Daughter of Portuguese actor Manuel Pêra and actress of Italian descent Dinorah Marzullo, Pêra stepped onto a theater stage for the first time at the age of four, alongside her parents, who were part of the cast of Henriette Morineau's company. From the age of 14 to 21, she worked as a dancer and participated in musicals and revues, including Minha Querida Lady (1962), starring Bibi Ferreira. According to Pêra, she passed because the directors were looking for someone who could do stunts, which was rare at that time. She also acted in other plays such as O Teu Cabelo Não Nega (1963), a biography of Lamartine Babo, in the role of Carmen Miranda. She would return to play the role of the singer in the show A Pequena Notável (1966), directed by Ary Fontoura; at A Tribute to Carmen Miranda at Lincoln Center, New York (1975), directed by Nelson Motta; in the only performance A Pêra da Carmem, at Canecão, in 1986, and in the musical Marília Pêra canta Carmen Miranda (2005), directed by Maurício Sherman. In 1964, Pêra defeated Elis Regina in an audition for the musical Como Vencer na Vida sem Fazer Força, both still unknown to the public at the time. Her first appearance on television was in Rosinha do Sobrado, on Rede Globo, in 1965 and then in A Moreninha. In 1967 she made her first performance in a musical show, A Úlcera de Ouro, by Hélio Bloch. In the 1960s, she was arrested during the performance of Chico Buarque's play Roda Viva (1968) and forced to run naked through a Polish corridor. She was arrested a second time, as she was considered a communist, when police invaded the house, scaring everyone, including her seven-year-old son, who was sleeping. In 1969, she achieved great success in the role of the protagonist in the drama Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito, by Leilah Assumpção, directed by Clóvis Bueno, the first play by the São Paulo playwright. For her interpretation of the complex character Mariazinha, a virgin spinster who lives in a boarding house for nuns, Pêra received the Molière Award and also the Award from the São Paulo Association of Theater Critics (APCT), currently the São Paulo Association of Art Critics (APCA). Her future husband Paulo Villaça played a thief who one night jumps out of her bedroom window with the intention of stealing. In the conversation between the two, which lasts all night, the spinster reveals her frustrations to the public and to herself. In 1975, she recorded the LP Feiticeira, released by Som Livre. Pêra was the actress who performed most alone on stage, managing to attract children to the difficult art of the monologue. In addition to Carmen Miranda, she played on screen and on stage the roles of famous women, such as Maria Callas, Dalva de Oliveira, Coco Chanel and the former first lady of Brazil Sarah Kubitschek. Her debut as a director took place in 1978, in the play A Menina e o Vento, by Maria Clara Machado. In 1992, she presented the musical Elas por Elas, for TV Globo. Alongside singer Simone and Cláudia Raia, they made public their support for candidate Fernando Collor de Mello in the 1989 elections. In a statement made to the television program Fantástico in 2006, due to the success of her character Milu, in the telenovela Cobras & Lagartos, Pêra spoke about her career, revealing that she could not stand working with actors with bad breath and foot odor. She commented that there are many actors who do not care about hygiene, without mentioning names (a hint towards his romantic partner in the telenovela, Herson Capri). Pêra stated that she never thought she was beautiful and that she was always clumsy. In 2008, she starred in the film Polaroides Urbanas, by Miguel Falabella, in which he played twin sisters. In 2009, she was cast by TV Globo to play hippie Rejane Batista in the miniseries Cinquentinha, by Aguinaldo Silva. After several scenes were recorded, the actress gave up the role, causing discomfort among the network's management. Betty Lago took over the role from Pêra. Some news that circulated at the time stated that the reason for not wanting to continue with the interpretation was that he did not feel comfortable with the role. In 2010, she was part of the cast of the series A Vida Alheia, by Miguel Falabella, on Rede Globo, as Catarina. In January 2013, the series Pé na Cova premiered, in which Pêra played Darlene, a makeup artist at her ex-husband Ruço's (Miguel Falabella) funeral home, who lives in the suburbs. In April 2014, due to personal problems, the actress left the series, returning to recording on 11 June 2014. At the 2015 carnival, Pêra was honored by the samba school Mocidade Alegre, in São Paulo. In August of the same year, she was honored at the Gramado Film Festival, where she received the Oscarito Trophy.

Personal life

Pêra married for the first time at the age of seventeen to the musician Paulo Graça Mello, who died in a car accident in 1969. At the age of eighteen she gave birth to the actor Ricardo Graça Mello. Her second marriage was to comedian Agildo Ribeiro, from whom she separated in 1968. The following year she married actor Paulo Villaça, her partner in Fala Baixo Senão Eu Grito, separating in 1971. In 1972, she married with Nelson Motta, separating in 1980. From this marriage, her daughters, Esperança Motta and Nina were born. Her last marriage, from 1998 until her death in 2015, was to Rio de Janeiro economist Bruno Faria. She was the older sister of Sandra Pêra, granddaughter of Antônia Marzullo, also actresses, and niece of actor Abel Pêra.

Death

Pêra died on 5 December 2015 in her apartment in the Ipanema neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. In the last months of her life, she was fighting lung cancer. She had spent the year undergoing medical treatment, combating wear and tear on her hip bones, which prevented her from acting. She was buried in the São João Batista Cemetery, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Filmography

Television

Film

Source: Mulheres do Cinema Brasileiro - Marília Pêra

Stage

Discography

Awards and nominations