‘I wanted to rest’, says son of Milton Gonçalves about father’s death

The flags of Flamengo, team of the heart, and Mangueira, favorite samba school, were on the coffin, but it was a table with some personal objects that drew attention at the wake of Milton Gonçalves, who died this Monday (30) , aged 88, as a result of an ischemic stroke (cerebrovascular accident) suffered in 2020.

Those who arrived at the main hall of the Municipal Theater, in downtown Rio de Janeiro, this Tuesday (31), immediately noticed the frame with a photo of his latest work on television — the Christmas special “Juntos a Magia Vantagens”, shown in 2019, on Globo—, two bouquets of white roses and a traditional kippah, a hat worn by Jews.

“My father was a goy, a non-Jew, almost converted. He had a strong connection with Judaism as well as Catholicism, Buddhism and Spiritism”, comments Alda Gonçalves. The actor’s middle daughter, she regretted having forgotten the candomblé guides. “He was a Brazilian. A man of cultural, social and religious diversity.”

Alda told the F5 that before suffering a stroke, during a feijoada at the Salgueiro samba school in Rio, in February 2020, Milton had projects underway. “My father had a million ideas. One of them was the desire to produce and act in “King Lear”, which he started to sketch. The other was a documentary that we, the three children, were producing and he was actively participating”, gets excited to remember.

The actor’s eldest son and also of the same trade, Maurício Gonçalves cried with the tribute of Acadêmicos do Santa Cruz, who in April defended the plot about the artist’s trajectory in the Gold Series of the Rio Carnival. Members of the association sang the samba plot at the end of the wake. “My father alternated moments of lucidity because of the medication, but he watched the parade. He was very emotional”, he recalled.

Maurício also admitted that Milton was suffering: “I’m not going to lie. The stroke was very strong and my father was not able to recover. He was never the same and was wanting to rest”.

“He was suffering and we don’t like to see the people we love suffering. Culture loses a lot and is a bit of an orphan without Milton Gonçalves. But he fulfilled his mission with a lot of dignity, a lot of talent”, analyzes Zezé Motta, who recalled having been the actor’s romantic partner in soap operas several times. “I was so many times his wife in dramaturgy, that I feel like a widow”, she joked, remembering her colleague’s good mood. “People who weren’t intimate with him have no idea how fun, funny he was. He looked serious, but he made fun of everything.”

One of the most emotional artists during the wake, Lázaro Ramos could not stay until the end of the ceremony and cried as he approached the body to say goodbye to the actor. “He, personally for me, has a greater meaning because he was and is the person who paved the way for me to get where I am. If I’m an actor, if I have any political activation, it’s very much because of the voice he opened up to all of us” , declared the actor.

Toni Tornado was another who couldn’t hold back tears either. He confided that he chose to wear white at his friend’s farewell, taking into account a request that had been made by Milton himself many years ago. “I only came in white because I heard that from him: ‘at my funeral I want people in white’. And I have never forgotten that, despite being older than him”.

A friend of Milton’s for over 60 years, Antônio Pitanga remembered the trajectory of both and defined the actor as a “giant”. “Giant because even in the end, he kept fighting. He was of a nobility that bathes you in wealth and reference.” Pitanga also stressed that Milton worked for black actors to play prestigious roles and not just subordinate characters. “He leaves life and enters history with the mission accomplished. It is up to us to continue Milton Gonçalves’ fight”, he concluded.

The ceremony, open to the public, began at around 9:30 am and ended at 1:30 pm. The actor’s body was taken to the Penitência Cemetery, in Caju, where he was cremated in a ceremony restricted to the family in the late afternoon.