Carmen Miranda

CARMEN MIRANDA d1955. Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer and actress. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", she was known for her signature fruit hat outfit that she wore in her American films. In 1939, Broadway producer Lee Shubert offered her an eight-week contract to perform in The Streets of Paris after seeing her at Cassino da Urca in Rio de Janeiro. The following year she made her first Hollywood film Down Argentine Way and her exotic clothing and Brazilian Portuguese accent became her trademark. That year she was voted the third-most-popular personality in the United States. She and her group (Bando da Lua) were invited to sing and dance for President Franklin D Roosevelt. In 1943, she starred in Busby Berkeley's The Gang's All Here which featured musical numbers with the fruit hats that became her trademark. By 1945, she was the highest-paid woman in the United States. She made 14 Hollywood films between 1940 and 1953. Although she was hailed as a talented performer, her popularity waned by the end of World War II. She began to resent the stereotypical "Brazilian Bombshell" image she had cultivated and attempted to free herself of it with limited success. Despite being stereotyped, her performances popularised Brazilian music and increased public awareness of Latin culture. In 1941, she was the first Latin American star to be invited to leave her hand and footprints in the courtyard of Grauman's Chinese Theatre and was the first South American honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is considered the precursor of Brazil's 1960s Tropicalismo cultural movement. A museum was built in Rio de Janeiro in her honour. She died of a heart attack in Beverly Hills aged just 46 on August 5th 1955