Note from BW of Brazil: May we always celebrate the lives of our elders! Unfortunate that March 11th passed by without our celebrating the birthday of one of Brazil’s most respected black actresses, Léa Garcia, who celebrated 83 years of life on that date.
Along with Ruth de Souza, Léa’s career represents true longevity in an industry in which Afro-Brazilian actors and actresses are never given their due. Garcia’s appearances on the big and small screen are too numerous to list here but many of our readers outside of Brazil may have become aware of her for the first time in the 1959 classic Orfeu Negro.
In 2014 Garcia starred in the important short film O Dia de Jerusa, that was featured at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France and showed that she still has what it takes as an actress even in her 80s! Congratulations Léa, Happy Belated Birthday and THANK YOU for paving the way for so many Afro-Brazilian actresses. The road to respect and appreciation is still a long ways away for black women in Brazil’s film and TV industry, but it would be difficult to imagine this struggle without your contributions for so many years!
The actress Léa Garcia celebrates 83 years of life and 63 of an artistic career
by Herminia Brandão
This month, the Rio actress Léa Garcia, who is currently artistic director of the Sindicato dos Artistas e Técnicos em Espetáculos de Diversões do Estado do Rio (Sated or Union of Artists and Technicians in Spectaculars of Amusement of the State of Rio) celebrated 83 years of life and 63 of artistic career.
She was born in Rio de Janeiro, on March 11, 1933. Léa has participated in 35 novelas (soap operas) and 25 films and has earned awards at various festivals.
Her last appearance in a novela was the opening of Êta Mundo Bom, currently on the air Globo TV, when she played the midwife of the birth the Candinho character.
Source: Jornal da 3a Idade
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