RIP Ilva Niño

Ilva Niño, actress who played Mina in 'Roque Santeiro', dies at the age of 90

The artist became famous for the catchphrase that the Widow Porcina (Regina Duarte) used to call her. Ilva has had a long career in theater, film, and television.

Globo

6/12/2024

 

Actress Ilva Niño, the maid Mina from the soap opera "Roque Santeiro", died in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday (12), at the age of 90.

Ilva had been hospitalized at the Quali Hospital in Ipanema since May 13, when she underwent heart surgery.

Ilva was married to Luiz Mendonça and had a son, Luiz Carlos Niño, both deceased.

The actress has had a vast career on television, with more than 30 soap operas and several series appearances.

The body is expected to be cremated on Thursday, but the place and time had not yet been set at the time of this report's last update.

Actress Ilva Niño was born in the city of Floresta, Pernambuco, on November 15, 1933. He started in the performing arts when he was attending the Normal School and participated in a Greek theater course taught by Ariano Suassuna. She ended up acting in the author's amateur production of Sophocles' "Antigone."

From there, she fell in love with theater and began her career in the Popular Culture Movement during the government of Miguel Arraes, in the early 1960s.

With the coup of 1964, she went to live with her husband in Rio de Janeiro The two already knew the city, as they had performed at a theater festival in the then capital of the country with "O Auto da Compadecida", in 1957, a play that gave the award for best author to Ariano Suassuna.

Ilva also acted in the plays "O Berço do Hero" and in "O Pagador de Promessas", by Dias Gomes.

With the hiring of the writer by Globo, the actress continued with him and did several works: "Verão Vermelho", from 1969; "Bandeira 2", from 1971; "The Goofy," 1972; "Gabriela", from 1975; "Pecado Capital", from 1975 — when she played the mother of Betty Faria and Elizangela's characters —; "Sem Lenço, sem Documento", from 1977, and "Feijão Maravilha", from 1979.

Popular success came with "Roque Santeiro", in 1985, when she played Mina, the maid and confidant of the widow Porcina.

In the 1980s, Ilva Niño established herself as one of the best-known artists on television. In addition to Roque Santeiro, she acted in "Água Viva", 1980; "Partido Alto" (1984); "The Other", 1987; "Baby on Board" (1988) and "Sex of Angels" (1989).

Ilva Niño also participated in Globo's first miniseries, "Lampião e Maria Bonita", from 1982, by Aguinaldo Silva and Doc Comparato. She played Odete, Maria Bonita's mother.

The actress continued acting in the 1990s and 2000s, with "Pedra sobre Pedra", from 1992; "Tropicaliente", 1994; and "Love Story" (1995). She was also in "Suave Veneno" and "Terra Nostra", both from 1999; "Porto dos Milagres", 2001; "Senhora do Destino", from 2004; "Soul Mate", 2005"; and "Seven Sins" (2007).

In 2009, Ilva Niño was in "Cat's Bed". Two years later, in 2011, she was the mother of the cangaceiro played by Domingos Montagner, in "Cordel Encantado". The artist pointed out that it was a different work from Maria Bonita's mother.

"It was really enchanted, it's another relationship of the cangaço, it wasn't that relationship of Lampião, it was more fantasy, more cordel. You watch the whole soap opera and the cangaceiros don't kill a person, they don't shoot anyone, they don't use the gun for anything," the actress said.

The actress is on the air in the reprise of the soap opera "Cheia de Charme", from 2012. She also did the second version of 2013's "Saramandaia" and the 2015 season of "Workout."

About having played many maids, Niño highlighted the importance of the category.

In 2016, the actress promoted the reopening of the Teatro Niño de Artes Luiz Mendonça, in Lapa, in the central region of Rio. Closed for 2 years, the place reopened its doors with the proposal of bringing to the area a space for the exhibition of theatrical and musical shows.

The Teatro Niño de Artes Luiz Mendonça is a tribute to the playwright and director Luiz Mendonça, who died in 1995.

NINO, Ilvo (Ilva Niño Mendonça)

Born: 11/15/1934, Floresta, Peinambuco, Brazil

Died: 6/12/2024, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

 

Ilva Niño’s western – actress:

Bloody Destiny (TV) – 1982 (Odete)