Greek Love Through the Ages - MPBA Fernando Ramos da Silva

THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

FERNANDO RAMOS DA SILVA

Eric Montage — Fernando Ramos da Silva (right) with his mother and siblings (he had nine of them at the time of this photo!) at their home in Diadema (For full size image, Right-click and select 'Open image in new tab')

Name: Fernando Ramos da Silva
Date of Birth: 29 November 1967
Place of Birth: Diadema, São Paulo, Brazil
Date of Death: 25 August 1987, police execution (see below)

Filmography

1981 Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco / Pixote: The Law of the Weakest
O Amor É Nosso / Love is Ours (TV Series)
Eles Não Usam Black-Tie / They Don't Wear Black Tie
1983 Gabriela, Cravo e Canela / Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon

With his earnings from Pixote, da Silva was able to buy a new house for his family in the Diadema district of São Paul. He also married Maria Aparecida ('Cida') Venancio, with whom he had a daughter, Jaqueline.

However, da Silva struggled with further acting, mainly owing to his illiteracy which meant that he had difficulty with a script, and was eventually written out of the soap opera O Amor É Nosso. With no prospect of employment, he was drawn into crime, before being shot dead by police at the age of 19.

John Holmstrom's romanticised account of the actor's death (below) is incorrect in maintaining that da Silva "elected to shoot it out with the cops, and so died." This was the police version of events, but it was inconsistent with both witness testimony and forensic evidence. In fact, da Silva was unarmed, and ran from the pursuing police to his home where he hid under a bed, pleading with the police not to kill him. The policemen involved were later to confess to the murder.

In 1996 a film dramatising the events of da Silva's life and death was released: Que matou Pixote? / Who Killed Pixote?, which starred Thiago Vidal as 10 year old Fernando.

Below: John Holmstrom's entry on da Silva from The Moving Picture Boy, pp. 368-369

Da Silva appeared on the front cover of the 8-14 April 1983 issue of Time Out magazine. Below is the cover and the article including an interview with da Silva (click on pictures to open full-size image in a new tab; from Editor's personal collection). The Time Out interview with Héctor Babenco, the director of the film Pixote, which is in the same issue of the magazine, is reproduced on the Archive page for the film.

Below: detail of front cover of Time Out showing photo of da Silva, presumably from around the same time as the magazine interview, when he would have been 15 years old