José Celso Martinez Corrêa (30 March 1937 – 6 July 2023), known as Zé Celso, was a Brazilian stage actor, director and playwright. He was one of the founders of Teatro Oficina, an innovative and politically active theater company associated with the 1960s Tropicalismo movement. Zé Celso became notable in the scene with his adaptation of

Oswald de Andrade José Oswald de Souza Andrade (January 11, 1890 – October 22, 1954) was a Brazilian poet, novelist and cultural critic. He was born in, spent most of his life in, and died in São Paulo. Andrade was one of the founders of Brazilian modernism ...

's play'' O Rei da Vela'' (The Candle King), in 1967. He also co-wrote with Chico Buarque the 1968 play ''Roda Viva,'' which was targeted as pornographic and was censored during the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

. One of his final plays was ''Os Sertões'', a trilogy adapting the book by

Euclides da Cunha Euclides da Cunha (, January 20, 1866 – August 15, 1909) was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is '' Os Sertões'' (''Rebellion in the Backlands''), a non-fictional account of the military expeditions ...

Personal life and death

Zé Celso was in a 40-year relationship with actor Marcelo Drummond. The couple married in June 2023, with a ceremony at Teatro Oficina. Zé Celso died in São Paulo on 6 July 2023, at the age of 86. He was hospitalized at Hospital das Clínicas, after a fire broke out in his apartment in the Paraíso neighborhood. Zé Celso was 53% burned and was under mechanical ventilation; his husband Marcelo, two visitors, and the couple's dog, who were also in the apartment, did not sustain burns, but were under observation at the hospital.

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* * 1937 births 2023 deaths People from Araraquara Brazilian male stage actors Brazilian theatre directors Brazilian male dramatists and playwrights Brazilian gay actors Brazilian gay writers Brazilian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights Gay dramatists and playwrights LGBTQ theatre directors Deaths from fire Accidental deaths in Brazil 20th-century Brazilian male actors 21st-century Brazilian male actors 20th-century Brazilian male writers 21st-century Brazilian male writers 20th-century Brazilian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Brazilian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Brazilian LGBTQ people 21st-century Brazilian LGBTQ people {{Brazil-actor-stub