Entertainer Aurora Miranda, Carmen Miranda's sister, died of natural causes on Wed., Dec. 21, in Rio de Janeiro. She was 90.
Born in Rio on April 20, 1915, Aurora started her show business career in the late 1920s, singing on radio and pairing up with sister Carmen at Rio's then prestigious Cassino da Urca.
Aurora Miranda's biggest hit came out in 1934: André Filho's "Cidade Maravilhosa" (Wonderful City), which became Rio's official anthem in 1960.
Her film debut took place in 1935, singing "Cidade Maravilhosa" in Alô, Alô, Brasil, a series of musical sketches (which also featured Carmen) directed by Wallace Downey, João de Barro, and Alberto Ribeiro. She also appeared with Carmen in several other Brazilian musicals, including Downey's Estudantes (1935) and Ruy Costa's reportedly lost Banana-da-Terra (1939). (A clip from that film, featuring Carmen Miranda, survives.)
After Carmen, Aurora was the busiest Brazilian recording artist of the '30s.
In the 1940s, she sang on radio in the United States, and appeared onstage at the Roxy and the Copacabana in New York. She also had brief roles in a handful of Hollywood films, including Brazil (1944), the film noir Phantom Lady (1944), and the Walt Disney mix of live action and animation, The Three Caballeros (right, 1944).
After a nearly 45-year hiatus, Miranda stepped in front of the cameras once again for what would be her last film, Carlos Diegues' Dias Melhores Virão / Better Days Ahead (1989), starring Marília Pêra and Brazilian pop singer Rita Lee.
I didn't even know that CArmen had a sister.
Aurora teve luz própria. Apesar de ter sido ofuscada pelo estrelato internacional de Carmen Miranda, ela parecia ter consciÁªncia de que havia deixado a sua marca. Ela ficará eternizada como a irmã também cantora de Carmen. Ao longo dos Áºltimos 50 anos, Aurora sempre falou publicamente sobre a Carmen com alegria e carinho.