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Nelma Costa

Nelma da Costa (1 February 1922 – 30 December 2023) was a Brazilian actress. She was the last surviving actress from the silent era of Brazilian cinema and the last protagonist of Cinédia.

Life and career

Nelma Costa was born on 1 February 1922, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. She was a descendant of a family linked to the arts, being the daughter of actors Álvaro Costa and Cora Costa. Her maternal grandparents, Caetano Magiolli and Livia Magiolli, were also actors.

Costa's career began in 1925, at the age of three, when she began to participate in soap commercials recorded for the cinema. In 1928, at the invitation of Olavo de Barros, she made her theater debut in the operetta Kenai. In 1937 she joined the theater company of Jaime Costa and also joined the theater company of Mesquitinha. Alongside Ítala Ferreira, Custódio Mesquita and Jaime Costa, she participated, in 1939, in the play Carlota Joaquina, the first theatrical representation of the Imperial Family of Brazil.

In 1939, at the invitation of Humberto Mauro, she participated in the short film Um Apólogo, alongside Déa Selva and narrated by Lúcia Miguel Pereira. She later became a Cinédia star, having acted in O Dia é Nosso (1941), Corações Sem Piloto, Caídos do Céu (1946) and Aguenta Firme, Isidoro (1951), being directed by Luiz de Barros in these last three films.

After getting married in 1947, she gradually moved away from the stage. For many years she was a radio actress, until she retired in the 1960s.