Maria Alice Vergueiro

Origin

São Paulo, SP

Genres

theater, film

Biography

Maria Alice Monteiro de Campos Vergueiro was born in São Paulo on January 19, 1935. Although she came from a traditional upper-middle-class family of moderate means, she built a striking artistic career as a theater, film, and television actress, in addition to working as an educator and university professor. Her stage career began in 1962, when she joined the cast of the show A Mandrágora directed by Augusto Boal. Over the following decades, she established herself as one of the great names of the São Paulo scene, earning nicknames such as the "lady of the underground" and the "indignant old lady."

The actress had fundamental stints with important theater collectives and companies in the country. She performed at the historic Teatro Oficina under the direction of José Celso Martinez Corrêa in the celebrated production of O Rei da Vela by Oswald de Andrade, in addition to collaborating with the Living Theatre. Maria Alice was also one of the founders of Teatro do Ornitorrinco alongside Cacá Rosset and Luiz Roberto Galízia, participating in highly relevant productions. As a teacher, she passed on her knowledge by teaching theater at the Escola de Aplicação da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo and at the Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA) of the same institution.

In addition to her solid career on stage and in award-winning short films like Rosinha, Maria Alice achieved enormous notoriety on the internet in 2006 by starring in the viral video Tapa na Pantera, directed by Esmir Filho, Mariana Bastos, and Rafael Gomes. On television, she was part of the cast of productions such as the telenovela Sassaricando, where she acted alongside renowned names of Brazilian theater like Paulo Autran and Jandira Martini. She passed away in São Paulo on June 3, 2020, a victim of pneumonia after complications resulting from hospitalization.