Paulo César Pereio, iconic actor of Brazilian cinema who appeared in more than 60 films, died on Sunday afternoon (12), in Rio de Janeiro, at the age of 83.
The artist was hospitalized at Hospital Casa São Bernardo, in Barra da Tijuca, where he was taken during the early hours, already in serious condition, to treat an advanced liver disease.
Pereio was born in Alegrete, a small city in Rio Grande do Sul, in 1940, and in his career, he became a sort of "terrible heartthrob" of Brazilian cinema. The roles of scoundrel—sometimes with a heart, often not—and the unforgettable phrases like "I love you, damn it" guaranteed him a mythical aura, especially in films from the 1970s and 1980s.
With his husky voice and the projection he brought from vigorous work in the theater, he embodied transgression on screen, from Cinema Novo to pornochanchada, through typically carioca tragedies and comedies.
A master of good bad humor, he crystallized a figure of a rude, mannerless man. But his work in over 60 years of acting shows a delicate and dedicated profile in translating the roughness of the Brazilian man.