Renowned Brazilian actor Leonardo Villar, protagonist of Anselmo Duarte’s The Given Word / O Pagador de Promessas, which won the Palme d’Or for Best Film at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival, died today at age 96 in São Paulo of a cardiac arrest.
Born Leonildo Motta on July 25, 1923 in Piracicaba in the interior of the state of São Paulo, he started his acting career in theater in the 1950 play Os Pássaros. He made his film debut in the leading role of Zé do Burro in The Given Word, which became the first and only Brazilian film to ever win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first South American film to receive an Oscar nomination.
Shot in Salvador, Bahia, the film tells the story of Zé, a very poor man whose most prized possession is his donkey. When the animal falls terminally ill, Zé makes a promise to Saint Bárbara: If his donkey recovers, he will carry a cross—like Jesus—all the way from his city to Saint Bárbara’s church, in the state capital. Upon the recovery of his donkey, Zé leaves on his journey. He makes it to the church, but the priest refuses to accept the cross once he discovers the context of Zé’s promise. Villar had previously played the same role in the original stage version, written by Dias Gomes, that the film is based on.
The Given Word by Anselmo Duarte
Villar followed the critical acclaim of The Given Word with the title role of in the 1964 Lampiao, King of the Badlands / Lampião, o Rei do Cangaço by Carlos Coimbra, an action adventure movie based on the famous bandit. One year later, Villar played the title role in The Hour and Turn of Augusto Matraga / A Hora e Vez de Augusto Matraga, a crime drama film directed by Roberto Santos, based on the short story of the same name by João Guimarães Rosa. He won the Best Actor Award for his role as Augusto Matraga at the inaugural Brasilia Film Festival. That same year, he made his television debut in the popular soap opera A Cor de Sua Pele, which marked the beginning of a successful television career - having worked in over 30 soap operas by the end of his life.
Villar played the leading role of Jasão in the 1966 The Big City / A Grande Cidade, the second feature film by Cinema Novo director Carlos Diegues. The film follows Luzia who arrives in Rio de Janeiro from her home in the Northeast of Brazil home, searching for her fiancé Jasão. During her quest, she discovers that Jasão is now a feared thief operating in one of the city’s favelas. Before Luzia can save him, both become victims of the big city’s violence.
Villar also worked with Mexican director Arturo Ripstein and actress Julissa in the 1967 film Juego Peligroso shot in Rio and formed by two short stories: HO, directed by Ripstein and written by Gabriel García Márquez, and Divertimento, directed by Luis Alcoriza.
Other film credits include Procura-se uma Rosa (Jece Valadão, 1964), Amor e Desamor (Gerson Tavares, 1966), O Santo Milagroso (Carlos Coimbra, 1967), A Madona de Cedro (Carlos Coimbra, 1968), and Amor de Perversão (Alfredo Sternheim, 1982).
After a long hiatus he returned to cinema in the 1998 crime thriller Friendly Fire / Ação Entre Amigos by Beto Brant, which was featured at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The film follows four friends who survived brutal torture at the hands of the military dictatorship that governed Brazil in the early seventies. When they cross paths with one of their torturers 25 years later, they decide to exact revenge.
Villar’s last two film credits were in Lúcia Murat’s 2000 Brave New Land / Brava Gente Brasileira, an epic drama that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival about a young Portuguese cartographer in the 18th century finds new forms of love, war and a wild new world in an expedition into South American heart; and in Láis Bodansky’s 2007 musical drama The Ballroom / Chega de Saudade.
