Fernando Ramos da Silva

Fernando Ramos da Silva (29 November 1967 – 25 August 1987) was a Brazilian actor who became renowned for his role as "Pixote," the 10-year-old title character in Hector Babenco's 1981 film '' Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco'', a documentary-style account of the street children of Brazil. Da Silva became a controversial figure after the film's release and found it hard to separate himself from his depiction as the street assailant Pixote.

On 25 August 1987, da Silva was fatally wounded in an alleged shootout with police. Police reports claim that da Silva was resisting arrest, but there are conflicting reports from eyewitnesses who claim da Silva was unarmed.

Early life

Born on 29 November 1967 in São Paulo, da Silva was the sixth of ten children. When he was eight years old his father, João Alves da Silva, died, leaving him with his widowed mother, Josefa Carvalho da Silva, and the rest of his siblings. They lived in a poor city called Diadema on the outskirts of São Paulo.

As the opening of ''Pixote'' states, his upbringing was similar to that of the role he would become famous for playing. His mother received a pension of less than $10 a month. The family sold lottery tickets to generate a livable income.

After attending grade school briefly, he soon joined a theater group and began acting in plays at the age of eight.

The biggest break of his young life came when da Silva was picked out of 1,300 applicants by Hector Babenco to play the role of Pixote.

''Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco''

''Pixote'' was released in 1981 and would become Babenco's first internationally successful film.

The film follows four young boys through their hellish stay in a dictatorial reformatory and their subsequent breakout. After escaping, they return to their lives as children of the street, pickpockets, prostitutes, drug dealers, and, eventually, murderers.

Controversial aspects of the film include the brutal depiction of sex involving children, scenes of children committing acts of murder and drug trafficking, and one of the major characters, Lilica, is a 17-year-old sex worker that sees older men.

''Pixote'' became a huge international success, even earning a nomination for best Foreign-language film at the Golden Globes, although it achieved moderate success in Brazil. An estimated 2.5 million viewers in 20 countries saw the movie. The movie received praise from film critics such as Roger Ebert of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' and Vincent Canby of the ''The New York Times''.

Life after ''Pixote''

Da Silva's newfound success landed him a one-year contract on TV Globo in the prime-time soap opera ''O amor é nosso''. However, he was soon fired for being perceived as lazy, although his inability to read lines due to his illiteracy may have contributed to that perception.

After being fired from the soap opera, da Silva appeared in a small role in ''Gabriela'', a movie by Bruno Barreto. He subsequently went to acting school where he dropped out after just two days.

Da Silva struggled to recapture his fame and eventually returned to the street life he had come from. In 1984 he was arrested on robbery charges in Diadema, one of several charges that would become a frequent occurrence for the former child star.

Da Silva married Maria Aparecida Venancia da Silva in 1985, with whom he had one daughter, Jacqueline.

Death and surrounding controversy

On 25 August 1987, da Silva was shot seven times by three policemen who claim he had been resisting arrest. However, relatively few people in Brazil believed the official report. While the police report stated that da Silva had been shot while resisting arrest, a forensic examination showed that he had been shot while lying on the ground.

Both his wife and mother called the shooting "a police execution."

The story of Fernando Ramos da Silva is depicted in the 1996 biographical film ''Quem Matou Pixote?''.

References

''Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco.''
Dir. Hector Babenco. Perf. Fernando Ramos da Silva, Jorge Julião, Marília Pêra, Gilberto Moura. Embrafilme, 1981. Film.
* Levine, Robert M. "Pixote: Fiction and Reality in Brazilian Life." ''Based on a True Story: Latin American History at the Movies.'' Lanham, MD: SR, 1997. 201-214. Print.
* Ebert, Roger.
Pixote Movie Review & Film Summary.
'' RogerEbert.com.'' Ebert Digital LLC, 12 Sept. 2004. Web.
* Riding, Alan.
Fernando Ramos Da Silva, 19, Star of Brazil's 'Pixote, Dies.
" Editorial. The New York Times 27 Aug. 1987. Web.
* Holmstrom, John. ''The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995''. Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 368-369.

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Fernando Ramos da
1967 births
1987 deaths
20th-century Brazilian male actors
Brazilian male child actors
Brazilian male television actors
Brazilian male stage actors
Brazilian male film actors
Male actors from São Paulo
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Brazil
Police brutality in Brazil