Henrique Mendes (January 2, 1931 – July 8, 2004) was a Portuguese television presenter and actor, he is best known for hosting several editions of

Festival da Canção Festival da Canção (; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to choose the for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in ...

. Mendes joint

Rádio Renascença Rádio Renascença, also known as 'RR' or just 'Renascença' (Renaissance in English), is a private, commercial radio station in Portugal, owned by various organizations within the Portuguese Catholic Church: among others, the Patriarchate of Lis ...

in 1950 as a radio announcer and in 1958 he joint RTP and was invited to join as a television presenter by

Artur Agostinho Artur Fernandes Agostinho (25 December 1920 – 22 March 2011) was a Portuguese journalist, recipient of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword The Military Order of Saint James of the Sword ( pt, Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada) ...

and he became known in Portugal for hosting

(Portuguese heats for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

), which he hosted from 1964 until 1968, again in 1972 and again in 1986, in addition the latter also commentated on the

for Portugal between 1965 and 1967 and again from 1969 until 1972. He also hosted a short-lived Portuguese version of ''Let's Make A Deal'' called ''Negócio Fechado'' running from 1999 to 2000 on

Sociedade Independente de Comunicação SIC (acronym of full name Sociedade Independente de Comunicação) ("Independent Communication Society") is a Portuguese television network and media company, which runs several television channels. Their flagship channel is the eponymous SIC, the ...

. With the success of his fame in Portugal, Mendes and his wife emigrated to Canada where he began hosting the Portuguese News in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. In 1979 Mendes and his wife returned to Portugal where

Raul Solnado Raul Augusto de Almeida Solnado (19 October 1929 - 8 August 2009) was a popular Portuguese actor and comedian. He was born in Lisbon's Madragoa neighborhood, and first appeared on stage there. In his long career, he developed many comic pieces ...

encouraged Mendes to run as radio director of

, in which Mendes was promoted to radio director and stayed in the job for almost 18 years. In 2002 he published his biography ''Um Homem Sorri com Palavras Leves'' (A Man Smiles at Light Words). Mendes died on July 8, 2004 after suffering from

bone cancer A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thyro ...

, he survived from his wife the actress Glória de Matos and his daughter from a previous marriage.

External links

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Henrique Mendes dies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendes, Henrique 1931 births 2004 deaths People from Lisbon Deaths from bone cancer Portuguese television presenters Portuguese game show hosts Radio and television announcers