Actress. A pretty blonde with a deep voice, she is remembered for a career of more than 60 years that saw her earn her reputation by portraying ladies older than herself. Born Cleyde Becker Yaconis in the Sao Paulo suburb of Pirassununga to an Italian father and a Brazilian mother, she was raised in Santos from an early age under somewhat Bohemian circumstances. In 1950 she followed her older sister Cacilda Becker onto the stage of Sao Paulo’s Brazilian Comedy Theatre where she made her bow in Tennessee Williams’ “The Stone Angel” and was to be a star for the rest of her life. Cleyde appeared in but few movies, making her 1954 silver screen debut in “The Road to Crime” and probably giving her best known performances in the 1977 “Stop 88: The Limit Alert” and 1985’s “Reindeer Games”. Acclaimed for her live theatrical work, she was seen in such classics as Schiller’s “Mary Stuart”, Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard” and Arthur Miller’s “The Death of A Salesman” as well as in dozens of lesser-known pieces before taking her final bows with 2012’s “They Do Not Like To Take”. First appearing on the small screen in TV Tupi’s 1966 “Love Has A Woman’s Face”, she was a fixture ever after, earning her final credit as Bridget Gouvea in the 2010 “Passione”. In 2009 the Cospia Culture Theatre was renamed the Cleyde Yaconis Theatre in her honor. Cleyde died following a protracted illness; some of her performances are preserved on DVD. (bio by: Bob Hufford)