Rubens de Falco

Career

De Falco was born in São Paulo, Brazil on October 19, 1931. He began his acting career in the local theater. In 1955, he joined the group "Os Jograis", of São Paulo, and performed beside such actors as Ruy Afonso, Italo Rossi and Felipe Wagner. He made his cinema debut in 1952 in the film Apassionata, for the Cinematographic Company Vera Cruz.

In television, he had prominence parts in telenovelas such as O Rei dos Ciganos (1967), A Rainha Louca (1967), O Passo dos Ventos (1968), Gabriela (1975), O Grito (1975), Escrava Isaura (1976), Dona Xepa (1977), A Sucessora (1978) and Sinhá Moça (1986).

Perhaps his best-known work came in 1976, when he portrayed the cruel villain Leôncio Almeida, a powerful farm owner and ruthless slave owner in the telenovela Escrava Isaura. De Falco's character, Leôncio Almeida, fell in love with one of his slaves, played by Brazilian actress Lucélia Santos.

Escrava Isaura was extremely well received globally and became a hit in Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Escrava Isaura was the first soap opera ever broadcast in Poland and Soviet Union and became the first television series to air in China with a foreign actress in the lead role. Rubens de Falco, who played Leôncio Almeida as one of his trademark villains, was called "the great villain of Brazilian television drama" by Lucélia Santos.

He again portrayed a powerful farm owner and ruthless slave owner, the cruel villain Baron de Araruna in the 1986 telenovela, Sinhá Moça alongside Lucélia Santos who starred this time as his rebellious daughter.

De Falco's last television appearance as an actor was as Almeida in 2004 in the Rede Record remake of A Escrava Isaura.

Death

Rubens de Falco died on February 22, 2008 of heart failure at the CIAI Center for the Aged in São Paulo, Brazil. He was not married and left no descendants.