Carmen Miranda, nascuda Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (Marco de Canaveses, Portugal, 9 de febrer de 1909 - Beverly Hills, Califòrnia, 5 d’agost de 1955), fou una cantant de samba i actriu brasilera nascuda a Portugal, activa especialment a partir del 1940. Carmen va fer catorze pel·lícules a Hollywood entre 1940 i 1953 i era anomenada «The Brazilian Bombshell».

Carmen Miranda was born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha, 9 February 1909, near Porto, Portugal, in the town of Marco de Canavezes. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Brazil, where her father was involved in the produce business. The family settled in the then capital city of Rio de Janeiro. After leaving school, Carmen got a job at a local store, often began singing on the job. Before long she was discovered and got a singing job on a local radio station. She ultimately got a recording contract with RCA. By 1928 she was a genuine superstar in Brazil. As with other popular singers of the era, she eventually made her way into the film world. She made her debut in the Brazilian documentary A Voz do Carnaval (1933). Two years later she appeared in her first feature film, Alô, Alô, Brasil (1935). However. it was Estudantes (1935) that seemed to solidify Carmen in the minds of the Brazilian movie audiences. Now they realized she could act as well as sing. Although there was three years between "Alo, Alo Carnaval" and Banana-da-Terra (1939), Carmen continued to churn out musical hits in Brazil. The latter film would be the last in her home country. In late 1939 Carmen arrived, with much fanfare in the press, in New York City. She was now ready to capture Americans' hearts with her talent. She appeared in some musical revues on Broadway and, just as everyone thought, was a huge hit. In 1940 Carmen was signed to appear in the 20th Century-Fox production Down Argentine Way (1940), with Betty Grable and Don Ameche. The only complaint that critics had was the fact that Carmen was not on the screen enough. In 1941 she was, again, teamed with Ameche in addition to Alice Faye in That Night in Rio (1941). The film was extremely popular with the theater patrons. Her unique songs went a long way in making her popular. It was after Week-End in Havana (1941) that American cartoon artists began to cash in on Carmen's ever-growing popularity. In the 1930s and 1940s cartoons were sometimes shown as a prelude to whatever feature film was showing. Sure enough, the cartoon version of Carmen came wriggling across the screen, complete with her trademark fruit hat and wide, toothy grin. In 1942 Carmen starred in Springtime in the Rockies (1942) with Betty Grable and Cesar Romero, both of whom she had worked with before. It was shortly after this that America began adopting her style of dress as the latest fad. 1944 saw her in three films: Something for the Boys (1944), Four Jills in a Jeep (1944) and Greenwich Village (1944). The first two did well at the box-office, but the last one left a lot to be desired. It was her last busy year in film. Carmen made one film each year 1945 through 1948. After that she didn't make a film for two years, until Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), a production for MGM. Once again didn't make a film for several years, returning with Scared Stiff (1953). She did stay busy, singing on the nightclub circuit and appearing on the relatively new medium of television. 'Scared Stiff' was her final movie performance. On 4 August 1955, she unknowingly suffered a heart attack during a live broadcast of The Jimmy Durante Show. She went home to Beverly Hills after attending a party (she neither drank nor smoked). On 5 August, Carmen suffered a fatal heart attack. She was just 46 years old.

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Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (Várzea da Ovelha e Aliviada, 9 de fevereiro de 1909 — Beverly Hills, 5 de agosto de 1955), mais conhecida como Carmen Miranda, foi uma cantora e atriz brasileira, de nacionalidade portuguesa, mas radicada no Brasil desde os dez meses de idade.

Sua carreira artística transcorreu no Brasil e Estados Unidos entre as décadas de 1930 e 1950. Trabalhou no rádio, no teatro de revista, no cinema e na televisão. Foi considerada pela revista Rolling Stone como a 15ª maior voz da música brasileira, sendo um ícone e símbolo internacional do Brasil no exterior. É irmã da atriz e cantora Aurora Miranda.

Apelidada de 'Brazilian Bombshell', Carmen é conhecida por seus exóticos figurinos e chapéu com frutas que ela costumava usar em seus filmes americanos, que fez deles sua marca registrada. Ainda jovem, ela aprendeu a fazer chapéus em uma boutique antes de gravar seu primeiro álbum com o compositor Josué de Barros em 1929. A gravação de Ta-hí (Pra Você Gostar De Mim), escrita por Joubert de Carvalho, a levou ao estrelato no Brasil como a principal intérprete do samba na década de 1930. Na época ela se tornou a primeira artista a assinar um contrato de trabalho com uma emissora de rádio no país.

Seu crescente sucesso na indústria fonográfica lhe garantiu um lugar nos primeiros filmes sonoros lançados nos anos 1930. Carmen Miranda participou de cinco musicais carnavalescos lançados nesse período como Alô, Alô, Brasil (1935) e Alô, Alô, Carnaval (1936). Em 1939, ela apareceu pela primeira vez caracterizada de baiana, personagem que a lançou internacionalmente, no filme Banana da Terra, dirigido por Ruy Costa. O musical apresentava clássicos como O que é que a baiana tem?, que lançou Dorival Caymmi no cinema.

Ela fez um total de catorze filmes nos EUA entre a década de 1940 e década de 1950, nove deles somente na 20th Century Fox.

From Wikipedia (pt), the free encyclopedia