Grande Otelo

Grande Otelo (October 18, 1915 – November 26, 1993) was the stage name of Brazilian actor, comedian, singer, and composer Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata. Otelo was born in Uberlândia, and was orphaned as a child. He kept running away from the families that adopted him; only when he took up art did his life become settled.

Grande Otelo started his film career in 1935 in the movie Noites Cariocas. He was also renowned for the comic duo he formed with Oscarito.

He died, aged 78, in Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris and was buried in São Pedro cemetery in Uberlândia, Brazil.

Grande Otelo is depicted in the 2023 biographical documentary film Othelo, o Grande, by Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos.

Otelo was the son of Antenor Prata and Maria das Dores de Souza. His father, who was a cowboy, died when Sebastião was only two years old. According to the actor himself, his career in acting began a few short years after in UIberlândia in 1924 in a circus ring:

"To me, the first entry that I made was beautiful because I was already a city clown, with my young age. Therefore, in that day the circus was full to see Bastiãozinho (...). I was about seven years old...Bastiãozinho dressed in a long dress and a pillow on the butt, wiggling arm in arm with the clown. Everyone laughed, everyone found it funny..."

When the young boy was eight years old, his mother gave him up for adoption and he was taken to São Paulo . In the city, he fled from his adopted family a few times, which always led him to the juvenile court. In 1927, though still a child, he participated in the Companhia Negra de Revistas which was funded by Jayme Silva and the black artist De Chocolat who also had had Pixinguinha as a conductor. His presentations quickly became well known, leading to the following quote from the Jornal do Commercio:

"As part of the cast as a great attraction the great Othelo, a little six year old artist, is a real astonishment. The great little artist sings in diverse languages, with a verve and an extraordinary spontaneity. Newspapers of São Paulo and many other cities have called him the greatest artist of the Portuguese language."