Sônia Braga

Brazilian actress who was on TV by 14, and then starred in a series of Brazilian soap operas. Sensuous, she went on stage at 17, becoming one of her country's top actresses. Braga first gained international attention in the title role of "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands," 1977. She also made a memorable English-speaking debut in "Kiss of the Spider Woman," 1985 and "The Milagro Beanfield War," 1988.

Braga was one of seven kids and the daughter of a widowed Sao Paulo seamstress. She was skinny with big teeth and wild curly hair. The daughter of a part-black, part-Portuguese dad and part-white and part-Indian mom, she was barely eight when her dad died. When she went to work at 14, she was spotted by a fashion photography who did not agree with her opinion that she was ugly, and cast her in a movie. She did TV, theater and soap operas, often in the role of a pathetic heroine, crying, until she became one of Brazil's biggest stars.

Sexually experienced, if not discrete, she stated in interviews that Robert Redford was her worst lover, Clint Eastwood was, "barely interesting," and Warren Beatty is, "available for everyone."