Rolando Boldrin (22 October 1936 – 9 November 2022) was a Brazilian television presenter, actor, singer, writer and composer.
Life and career
Born in São Joaquim da Barra, a grandson of Italian immigrants, Boldrin was the seventh of twelve children.[1][2] He spent his childhood in Guaíra and while still a child he formed the musical duo Boy & Formiga with his brother Leili.[1] At 16 years old, he moved to São Paulo where he worked at different jobs before winning an audition as an actor for the TV Tupi broadcaster in 1958.[1] While his acting career progressed, with Boldrin getting bigger roles in TV-dramas and telenovelas, at the same time he was active as a singer and a composer, often collaborating with his wife, the singer Lurdinha Pereira, and sometimes collaborating on the musical scores of the telenovelas he was working on as an actor.[1] In the 1980s, he got a massive success as a talk show host, first with Som Brasil on TV Globo, and later with other shows with similar formats such as Empório Brasileiro on Rede Bandeirantes and Empório Brasil on SBT.[1][2] From 2005 until his death he hosted the TV Cultura talk show Sr. Brasil.[1][2]
During his career Boldrin appeared in over 30 telenovelas[2] and recorded over 250 songs.[1] He also worked in cinema, on stage and on radio.[2] He died of respiratory and renal failure, at the age of 86.[2]
His niece the tennis player Bia Haddad, paid tribute to him on social media after his death in 2022.[3][4]