Dercy Gonçalves

Dolores Gonçalves Costa (23 June 1907 – 19 July 2008), known by her stage name Dercy Gonçalves, was a Brazilian actress, comedian and singer. In her 86-year-long career, she worked in the theater, revues, film, radio and television, becoming famous by her humorous use of vulgar language. Dercy came from a mixed family: her grandmother was black African, from Dakar, and her grandfather, Portuguese from Coimbra. Another grandmother was “almost Indian”. Originally from a poor family, she was born in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro. Her sister Cecília, according to the record, is six months removed from her birth. At the time, it was very common to register children later, due to the lack of access to registry offices and information on the importance of civil registration. To help with household expenses together with his brothers, Dercy went to work at a cinema box office, at Cinema Ideal. while watching films during office hours, she learned how to put on makeup and act like the artists of the time Pola Negri and Theda Bara. Her big dream was to pursue an artistic career. Even though she was not yet a professional actress, she performed in improvised theaters for hotel guests in her hometown. On television, she became the highest paid actress on TV Excelsior in 1963, where she also met executive José Bonifácio de Oliveira Sobrinho, known as Boni. Afterwards, he moved to TV Rio and, now at TV Globo, she convinced Boni to work at the station, alongside Walter Clark. From 1966 to 1969 she presented a very successful talk show on TV Globo, Dercy de Verdade (1966-1969), which ended up going off the air with the intensification of censorship in the country after AI-5. On September 22, 1969, the program was suspended by Federal Censorship for 15 days.