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António Mário Lopes Pereira Viegas (born in Santarém on 10 November 1948 – died in Lisbon on 1 April 1996) was a Portuguese actor, theatre director and reciter. He is considered one of the best actors of his generation and one of Portugal's greatest poetry reciters.[1][2]
Born on 10 November 1948 and raised in a family from Santarém, which operated pharmacies and had a republican tradition, Mário Viegas became interested in theater while he was still studying history at the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa. Later, after a period living in Porto, he enrolled at the Lisbon Theatre and Film School and made his professional debut at the Teatro Experimental de Cascais with Carlos Avilez.[3][1]
Mário Viegas' career as an actor focused on theater - throughout his life, he founded three theater companies - the last of which was Companhia Teatral do Chiado. As a director and/or artistic director, he was responsible for adapting and staging the great classics of theater, by authors such as Samuel Beckett, Eduardo De Filippo, Anton Tchekov, August Strindberg, Luigi Pirandello or Peter Shaffer.[3] His last theatrical success was the play Europa Não! Portugal Nunca, in 1995.[4]
At the same time, Mário Viegas also made himself known for his admirable way of saying poetry, recording an extensive discography in which he made known to the general public the work of some of the main Portuguese poets of the 20th century, such as António Gedeão, Fernando Pessoa, Guerra Junqueiro, Cesário Verde, Camilo Pessanha, Jorge de Sena, Ruy Belo or Eugénio de Andrade, but also Luís Vaz de Camões, Bertolt Brecht, Pablo Neruda, among others.[5][1][2]
On television, he was responsible for conceiving, directing and presenting the programs Palavras Ditas and Palavras Vivas, where, in addition to classical poets, he promoted authors such as Pedro Oom and Mário-Henrique Leiria to the general public.[6][7][8]
Mário Viegas' career in cinema began with the feature film O Funeral do Patrão by Eduardo Geada (1975). He went on to appear in more than 15 films, including regular collaboration with José Fonseca e Costa, such as Kilas, o Mau da Fita (1981), Sem Sombra de Pecado (1983), A Mulher do Próximo (1988) and Os Cornos de Cronos (1991). He also appeared in O Rei das Berlengas by Artur Semedo (1978), Azul, Azul by José de Sá Caetano (1986), Repórter X by José Nascimento (1987), A Divina Comédia by Manoel de Oliveira (1991), Rosa Negra by Margarida Gil (1992), and A Firma Pereira by Roberto Faenza (1996), in which he starred with Marcello Mastroianni.[9]
Viegas' career also includes his forays into politics. In 1995, he ran for parliament as an independent on the Popular Democratic Union's lists. In 1996, also with the support of the PDU, he was a candidate for the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic, adopting the slogan O sonho ao poder (The dream to power), and seeking support in Lisbon's university community.[10][3] In September of that year, in relation to his candidacy, he revealed his homosexuality to the public, however he later retreated his candidacy due to his worsening health condition.[11]
He was also a columnist for the Diário Económico, where he wrote about theater and humor. He published an autobiography entitled Auto-Photo Biography, in 1995.[12]
Viegas died of AIDS on 1 April 1996, at the Santa Maria Hospital.[13][1][5] His body is in a shallow grave in the artists' section of the Prazeres Cemetery in Lisbon.[14][15]
Some of his movies include:[29][30][9]
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.jpg/2000px-Lisboa_(8622758521).jpg "Mário Viegas")
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