Rolando Boldrin, actor, writer, composer and symbol of the dissemination of Brazilian popular culture, died on November 9, 2022 in São Paulo. In addition to the legacy left for future generations, Boldrin established another success trajectory of Italian-Brazilians in the country.
The surname Boldrin originates from the Italian region of Veneto, more precisely in the province of Venice. It is a family name classified as a patronymic, as it derives from the name of the first person who used it.
It is derived from the term Boldrinus, which gave rise to several names ending in boldo or poldo (Uboldo, Leopoldo), all with Germanic roots. The Germanic name Ubald, which means “brave, courageous”, dates back to the late 1300s with Panicale Boldrino, famous captain of ventura.
This surname has variants such as Boldrini, Baldari and Baldorini, also originating in Veneto and with different meanings. For example, Baldari and Baldorini mean “Chief of the Army”.
Popularity
the italian website Cognomix records approximately 1307 Boldrin families in Italy, with the regions with the greatest presence being Veneto, with 965 families, followed by Lombardia (135) and the region of Piedmont (81)
The Boldrin surname is the 205th most popular in Veneto, the 70th most popular in the province of Venice and the third most common surname in the city of Venice. Campolongo Maggiore, located in Venice.
Rolando Boldrin's career
Rolando Boldrin was born in the city of São joaquim da barra, in the interior of São Paulo, on October 22, 1936. He was the seventh child in a family of Italian origin of 12 siblings, headed by parents Amadeu and Alzira.
Since he was little he played the viola, but he considered himself essentially an actor. In an interview with “Aplauso Collection”, project of Official Press of São Paulo about great names in Brazilian culture, spoke about his Italian roots.
“My grandparents were Italian immigrants. I met my grandfather, Marião, Mario Boldrin, born in Merlara, Padova, close to Venice. There's Boldrin like a pest there, he's like Silva here. He was a happy man, but there was nothing artistic about him, this side of me came to blossom naturally, in an even emotional way,” he declared.
The country culture
Regarding his love for country culture, he said he discovered this vocation as a child in interior of São Paulo, when he began to record in his memory the simple life of the cowboys who arrived in the city, the dust on the sidewalks, the owner of the bar and the rustic way of living life.
“Everything that caught my attention, I recorded it. This went along with me, this way of recording what happened, the types, the Brazilian way, mainly. I say that he was the actor that already existed in me and that ended up blossoming through television in 1958, then in , and movies”, said Rolando Boldrin.
The music of Rolando Boldrin
In 1947, at just 11 years old, Rolando Boldrin formed the duo Boy and Ant with one of his brothers. Passionate from an early age about names in traditional country music, such as Tonico & Tinoco e Cornelio Pires, he wanted to share the Brazilian countryside through art.
At the age of 16, encouraged by his father, Rolando Boldrin went to the capital of São Paulo hitchhiking in a truck. Before embarking on his singing career, he was a shoemaker, gas station attendant, loader, waiter e helper pharmaceutical. At the age of eighteen he did military service in the Army, in Quitaúna. In the following years, he began to dedicate himself solely to musical activity.
He made his musical debut in 1960 as a guest on the album of his future wife, who became his producer. Lurdinha Pereira. In 1974 he released his first solo album, “O Cantado”, on the Continental record label.
Actor Rolando Boldrin
Rolando Boldrin also had great experience as a teletheater actor for Tupi TV, between the end of the 1950s and beginning of the 1960s, alongside names such as Lima Duarte, Laura Cardoso e Dionísio Azevedo. The book “TV before VT” shows several of his stints at the station, in photos from the recordings of TV Tupi programs, when there was no videotape.
Between the 1960s and 1980s, Boldrin acted in approximately 30 soap operas on the Record, Tupi and Bandeirantes.
Promoter of Brazilian culture
In the 1980s, he started presenting television programs, such as Brazil Sound (TV Globo), Empório Brasileiro (TV Bandeirantes) and Empório Brasil (SBT). His last job as a presenter was the program Sr. Brasil, on TV Cultura de São Paulo.
In these programs, Rolando Boldrin took advantage of the space to publicize the traditional country music, often bringing to larger audiences artists who have never had the opportunity to show their work, in addition to interacting with renowned names.
It was also on television that he became known as “stories” counter, stories that could be humorous or sad, but always full of poetry, narrated with their deep, richly expressive voice, about life in the countryside and the misadventures of the country man. Furthermore, Rolando Boldrin sang, danced, showed plays and short documentaries.
After leaving TV Globo's Som Brasil in 1984, he took this format that established him among all others television programs who commanded.
awards and honors
Rolando Boldrin received the award for best supporting actor at the Brasilia Film Festival, for his performance as Pedro Melo, in O Tronco (1990), a film based on the novel of the same name by the writer from Goiás Bernardo Elis.
In 2010 it was the theme of the samba school parade Black Pearl, at the São Paulo carnival, with the plot “Let’s get Brazil out of the drawer”, with Boldrin's commitment to highlighting national culture as its central point.
In 2022, TV Cultura honored the actor for his 85 years of life with the screening of the documentary “Me, The Viola and God”, directed by João Batista de Andrade.
Farewell to Rolando Boldrin
Rolando Boldrin died on November 9, at the age of 86, due to respiratory and renal failure, leaving behind a life of work carried out during his exemplary artistic trajectory.
The wake was held at Legislative Assembly of São Paulo and burial in the Gethsêmani Cemetery, in the capital of São Paulo. He was married to the producer and set designer Patricia Maia Boldrin and left his daughter Vera Boldrin, the result of his first marriage.
The artist received several tributes from his colleagues and its audience and definitively entered the shelf of legends of Brazilian popular culture.
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