Sonia Braga

Biography

Sônia Maria Campos Braga is a Brazilian actress. She is known in the English-speaking world for her Golden Globe Award–nominated performances in Kiss of the Spider Woman and Moon over Parador. She also received a BAFTA Award nomination in 1981 for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

Braga was born in Maringá, Paraná, Brazil, to Hélio Fernando Ferraz Braga and Maria Braga Jaci Campos, costume designer of Maringá. She has two siblings, Ana Júlia and Hélio. Her sister Ana’s daughter Alice Braga is also an actress. Braga’s family moved to Curitiba and then to Campinas. Braga was 8 years old when her father died, and she moved to a convent school in São Paulo. In her teens, she took a job in the noted Brazilian reception center Buffet Torres as a receptionist.

In 1975, Braga starred in the telenovela Gabriela, in an adaptation of Jorge Amado’s novel Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon. Directed by Walter Avancini, the soap opera was a great national and international success, establishing Sonia Braga as a sex symbol. Braga returned to embody Jorge Amado’s characters in the film. In 1976, she made the film Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands directed by Bruno Barreto, alongside José Wilker and Mauro Mendonça. The film was a box office hit in Brazilian cinemas and also had major repercussions internationally.

During the 1980s, Braga had relationships with Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, actor Robert Redford and director Clint Eastwood.