Actress. A pretty brunette, Cacilda Becker is remembered for her career on her country’s stage. Born Cacilda Becker Yaconis in the Sao Paulo suburb of Pirassununga to a Brazilian mother and an Italian father, she was raised from an early age in Santos under somewhat Bohemian conditions. After acting in amateur productions she got her professional start in the 1947 film feature “Light in Their Eyes” and had her big break the next year when she was offered a part in “Women’s Next” at Sao Paulo’s Brazilian Comedy Theatre after Nydia Lycia refused to play the required love scenes. For the rest of her life Cacilda was to be a star in the theatres of both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, her credits including such classics as Schiller’s “Mary Stuart”, Tennessee Williams’ “Night of the Iguana”, “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof”, and “The Stone Angel”, Alexandre Dumas, fils’ “The Lady of the Camellias”, Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, as well as numerous lesser-known works. Seen on the big screen but few times, she did have a recurring role as Augusta in the 1966 TV Tupi soap “Jealousy”. On May 6, 1969, Cacilda suffered a stroke during a performance of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” and remained in a coma until her death. She has been honored by Jose Celso Martinez Correa’s play “Cacilda!” in which she was originally played by Beth Coelho and has been portrayed on the screen at least twice, by Camilla Morgado in 2004’s “One Heart” and by Ada Chaseliov in the 2006 “Brasilia 18%”. Her younger sister was actress Cleyde Yaconis. (bio by: Bob Hufford)