José Wilker

José Wilker was a Brazilian actor and playwright. Born in Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil, he began as a radio speaker there and later moved to Recife, where he joined the Movimento de Cultura Popular theater group. He then relocated to Rio de Janeiro and entered film, making his debut in A Falecida with Fernanda Montenegro. He continued on stage and wrote plays such as O Trágico Acidente que Destronou Teresa (1968) and A China é Azul (1972). That same year he appeared in Os Inconfidentes and in his first television series, O Bofe. From the mid-1970s he focused on film and television, appearing in Brazilian hits including Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), Bonitinha mas Ordinária (1981), and Better Days Ahead (1989). He later worked on Medicine Man (1992), which starred Sean Connery, and Dead in the Water (2002). He also served as a producer on A Guerra de Canudos. He died in 2014.