the cruel fame that only comes to actors from a tragic death

Every actor who does television wants to experience the taste of fame. Whether as validation of your talent or mere vanity.

Some make headlines, but for an unwanted reason. They gain posthumous fame brought about by a dramatic death.

Jeff Machado has just joined the police chronicle of celebrities. He made news on the news not because of a relevant job, but because of the mysterious disappearance and the dramatic outcome of the case.

His body was located in a trunk that belonged to him, buried two meters deep, under concrete, four months after his disappearance.

Everything indicates a murder committed by someone who pretended to be a friend and took money from the artist with the false promise of putting him in the main cast of some soap opera.

Deluded by the dream of achieving stardom on TV, Jeff fell for the scam that has claimed so many victims. Now, he will only be remembered for his participation in ‘Reis’, by Record, and his coverage of the crime. He died without achieving the desired success.

In September 2021, the news highlighted the death of Luiz Carlos Araújo, seen as a supporting actor in SBT soap operas such as ‘Carinha de Anjo’ and ‘Cúmplices de um Resgate’.

The actor was found lifeless in his apartment, in downtown São Paulo, with his head covered by a plastic bag.

The strange circumstances produced the suspicion of homicide and even the action of a hypothetical serial killer of homosexuals.

The artist with a solid academic background and dedicated to the arts for decades did not have the desired public recognition in his lifetime. He became famous in the worst way.

His career battle was overshadowed by speculation about his early and initially incomprehensible death.

The rumored conundrum ended after months of investigation. “The association of antidepressants, cocaine and alcohol, with the consequent lowering of the level of consciousness, associated with confinement were the causes of death (accidental)”, pointed out the report of the IML (Instituto Médico Legal).

Another episode of deplorable lurid visibility happened to Rafael Miguel, the actor from ‘Chiquititas’ murdered with his father and mother.

The triple homicide committed by his girlfriend’s father made the young artist remembered in the media after four years without a major role in television drama, a period in which the press ignored him.

Police programs exploited the tragedy to exhaustion. The hunt for the suspect – arrested only in May 2022 – produced weeks of coverage until ratings began to drop and, as always happens, the agenda was replaced by other bloody dramas.

The press in general – and I include this blog in the criticism – tends to impose an overdose of news on the most popular group of artists (generally those on Globo or in evidence on social networks).

Those seen as secondary, like the aforementioned Jeff Machado, Luiz Carlos Araújo and Rafael Miguel, do not get material to project their work. They are not considered engagers.

Unfairly, the image of these supporting actors is almost always popularized only with scandals, serious failures or an impactful death.

Explicit distortion of this media dependent on ‘likes’ and Ibope points and an audience eager for macabre stories to distract themselves. Paraphrasing Hamlet, there is something poor in the realm of the Brazilian press.