Jece Valadão, the actor who, for decades, made a name in the Brazilian movies playing a scoundrel and who was loved for that, died in São Paulo, on Monday, November 27, from cardiac arrest. The 76-year-old actor had been taken to the hospital on November 20 when his heart stopped for the first time.
The actor had become partially blind due to diabetes. The medical report released after his death revealed that he was having kidney and blood circulation trouble and that hemodialysis and drugs hadn’t helped the patient.
Villain on the screen he wasn’t the sweetest character in real life. He married six times and had nine children, but he recognized only five of them as their own.
Vera Lúcia Valadão, 45, Jece’s last wife, talked about their relationship in recent times: “He was my little son. He needed me for everything,” she said. According to her, she kept talking to him even in his coma. “You are beautiful, love,” she continued telling the actor.
Valadão made quite a turn in his life just 10 years ago when he decided to become an evangelical. That’s when he married Vera Lúcia. His closeness to the bible, however, didn’t make him less outspoken.
While in 1995 he gave an interview saying that “being a macho man means to get a woman a day,” more recently he used to tell that “the important is to win the heart of the same woman every day.”.
He kept working even in his 70s. In 2005 he played the role of macho man Joe Wayne in “Bang Bang” a Globo TV soap opera. The actor has also played himself in the documentary O Evangelho Segundo Jece Valadão (The Gospel According to Jece Valadão).
Just before becoming ill, Valadão was shooting for controversial horror movie director Zé do Caixão, known in the US as Coffin Joe. The low budget movie is called Encarnação do Demônio (Devil’s Incarnation).
About his participation in the movie he told reporters: “I’m loving it. I only suffered when I had to remove a mold from my face and almost died with the sensation that I was suffocating.” This was his 107th film. Before that his last time on a movie set was 10 years ago when he made Cacá Diegues’ Tieta do Agreste.
Even though many people believe he was from Espírito Santo since he moved there when he still was a little kid, Valadão was born in Murundu, in the interior of Rio de Janeiro state. He started in the movies in 1949 playing a small role in a classic Brazilian chanchada (ribald comedy): Carnaval no Fogo (Carnaval in Fire).
His most important movies were Os Cafajestes (The Unscrupulous Ones) by Ruy Guerra, 1962; Idade da Terra (The Age of the Earth) directed by Gláuber Rocha, 1980 and three films directed by Nelson Pereira dos Santos: Rio 40 Graus ( Rio 100 Degrees F) (1955), Rio Zona Norte (Rio Northern Zone) (1957) and O Boca de Ouro (The Golden Mouth) (1962).
In Tieta do Agreste (Tieta of Agreste) Valadão played the role of commander Dario, a military man with a social conscience who leaves the Navy to live in the quiet Mangue Seco town. It was one of the rare occasions in which he interpreted a good-hearted character.
The actor also directed several films, among them Procura-se uma rosa (Looking for a Rose) (1964), As sete faces de um cafajeste (The Seven Faces of a Scoundrel) (1969), Nós, os canalhas (We, the Rascals) (1975) e A noite dos assassinos (The Murderers Night) (1976).
Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, the little town in Espírito Santo in which he grew up, has declared three days of mourning to commemorate the actor’s death. The city mayor is Roberto Valadão. a cousin of Jece. “He was always very fond of Cachoeiro,” the mayor said. “We even have a square with his name.”
In the documentary The Gospel According to Jece Valadão, the actor says that he feels regretful for having been an absent father and tells how religion made a new man from him.
Some of his statements:
“I never made a pornochanchada, which is the sex without reason. What I did was erotic urban comedies based on literature.”
“God made the man to be man. The metrosexual is nothing more than a man’s lack of courage to assume his femininity.”
“I regret having been an absent father. I feel sorrow by the fact that my children didn’t have for me the love I had for my father. My father was the person who I loved the most in the world. I waited for him to return from work to take a bath with him on the river.”
“The only time I played the leading man I bitterly regretted it.”
“I am evangelical, I am a God’s servant. I was an atheist by conviction. I had all the privileges of the world, I was surrounded by pretty women, had money, had everything. And was a materialist. Ten yeas ago I changed my life’s values.”
Jece Valadão’s Filmography:
Garrincha, estrela solitária (2003)
O cangaceiro (1997)
Tieta do agreste (1996)
íguia na cabeça(1984)
O torturador (1981)
A idade da terra (1980)
Eu matei Lúcio Flávio (1979)
O gigante da América (1978)
Quem matou Pacífico? (1977)
A nudez de Alexandra (1976)
Ninguém segura essas mulheres (1976)
A noite dos assassinos (1976)
O homem de papel (1976)
Nós, os canalhas (1975)
O mau caráter (1974)
Tercer mundo (1973)
Um edifício chamado 200 (1973)
A filha de madame Bettina (1973)
Obsessão (1973)
A difícil vida fácil (1972)
Memórias de um gigolô (1970)
O enterro da cafetina (1970)
O matador profissional (1969)
A navalha na carne (1969)
Quelé do Pajeú (1969)
Os raptores (1969)
As sete faces de um cafajeste (1968)
A espiã que entrou em fria (1967)
Mineirinho vivo ou morto (1967)
A lei do cão (1967)
Paraíba, vida e morte de um bandido (1966)
História de um crápula (1965)
22-2000 Cidade Aberta (1965)
Asfalto selvagem (1964)
Boca de ouro (1963)
Bonitinha mas ordinária (1963)
Os cafajestes (1962)
Mulheres e milhões (1961)
Favela (1960)
Tudo legal (1960)
Mulher de Fogo (1959)
Garotas e samba (1957)
Rio zona norte (1957)
Rio 40 graus (1955)
Almas em conflito (1955)
Carnaval em Caxias (1954)
Barnabé tu és meu (1952)
Amei um bicheiro (1952)
Três vagabundos (1952)
Também somos irmãos (1949)
Carnaval no fogo (1949)
