Antonio Silva

António Silva with Beatriz Costa (in A Canção de Lisboa 1933)

The Teatro da Trindade , one of Silva's workplaces

The former Teatro Avenida

The former Teatro da Rua dos Condes 2005

António Maria da Silva (born August 15, 1886 in Lisbon , † March 3, 1971 ibid) was a Portuguese actor .

Career

Silva came from a simple background and started working as a sales assistant at a young age. He got enthusiastic about the theater early on and played as an amateur in his spare time. In 1910 he played for the first time on a professional stage, Tolstoy in the then Teatro da Rua dos Condes (since 1920 Cinema Condes ), with the theater company of Alves da Sila. In 1913 the ensemble went on tour to Brazil , where Silva stayed and played theater until 1921 and also got his first feature film roles in local silent film productions. There he met Josephina Barco, whom he married in August 1920.

Back in Lisbon, he played theater again without causing any particular stir. He achieved first notoriety since he played major comedic roles in the popular revues of Lisbon , first in 1927 in the play Agua-Pé in the Teatro Avenida (on Avenida da Liberdade , burned down in 1967).

In 1933 he played alongside Vasco Santana and Beatriz Costa one of the leading roles in the sound film A Canção de Lisboa ("Lisbon Song"). The film's huge hit made him famous overnight at the age of 47. Often together with Vasco Santana, he played many leading roles in films and revues, especially in the Teatro da Trindade and the Teatro Variedades .

From 1944 to 1946 he was engaged at the Teatro Trindade , with Ribeirinho and António Lopes Ribeiro , who contributed to the renewal of spoken theater in Portugal. Silva's role as the drunken Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion was considered by theater critics to be a high point of his career. He then returned to revue and comedy, where he stayed until the end of his active career. In 1966 he was awarded the Order of St. Jacob of the Sword as an officer. In the same year he retired, interrupted only by a few television appearances. He died in his hometown of Lisbon in 1971.

reception

Silva was the most distinctive actor in the comedy-dominated Portuguese film of the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to his accented language and especially his intonation , it was his facial expressions and expressive hand movements that made him unique. His energy and liveliness in play also set him apart. He played both “good” and “bad” roles, mostly folk characters with their human weaknesses, but also men from higher social classes with their characteristic peculiarities. He often plays ambitious, devious and yet often folksy types who often attach small-minded goals with human motifs, and make the audience laugh through their pointed exaggeration and sometimes lovable charm and liveliness. With the end of the film comedies, the end of his career begins accordingly. The Portuguese film of the 1960s cannot offer him adequate roles, especially not the Novo Cinema , and so he only makes two meaningless films. His earlier successful films, however, are still popular today, and together with Vasco Santana no film actor has ever achieved comparable, lasting popularity in Portugal either before or after them.

Filmography

1910: 606 contra o Espirocheta Palido 1919: Ubirajara 1920: Convém Martelar 1920: Coração de Gaúcho 1933: A Canção de Lisboa 1934: Gado Bravo 1935: As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor 1936: Las tres gracias 1936: Bocage 1937: Maria Papoila 1939: Varanda dos Rouxinóis 1940: João Ratão 1940: Feitiço do Império 1942: O Pátio das Cantigas 1942: Lobos da Serra 1943: O Costa do Castelo 1943: Amor de Perdição 1944: A Menina da Rádio 1945: A Vizinha do Lado 1946: Camões 1947: Os Vizinhos do Rés-do-Chão 1947: Três Espelhos

1947: O Leão da Estrela 1947: Fado, História d'uma Cantadeira 1949: Heróis do Mar 1950: O Grande Elias 1951: Sonhar É Fácil 1952: Os Três da Vida Airada 1953: O Comissário de Polícia 1956: O Dinheiro dos Pobres 1956: O Noivo das Caldas 1957: Perdeu-se around Marido 1957: Dois Dias no Paraíso 1960: O Passarinho da Ribeira 1961: As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor 1961: O Herói eo Soldado TV 1964: A TV Através dos Tempos TV 1964: Aqui Há Fantasmas 1964: Riso e Ritmo TV series 1965: Cruzeiro de Férias TV 1965: Não Acordem o Menino Jesus TV 1967: Sarilhos de Fraldas 1968: Melodias de Semper TV

See also

• Portuguese film

literature

• A. Murtinheira, I. Metzeltin: History of Portuguese cinema. 1st edition, Praesens Verlag, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-7069-0590-9 .
• Jorge Leitão Ramos Dicionário do cinema portugués 1962–1988. 1st edition, Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989, ISBN 972-21-0446-2 .

Web links

• Page with biography, filmography, pictures and video clips
• António Silva in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.netsaber.com.br/biografias/ver_biografia_c_1046.html
2. ↑ Jorge Leitão Ramos: Dicionário do cinema portugués 1962–1988 . 1st edition, Editorial Caminho, Lisbon 1989, pages 361/362.
3. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.